Forever Friends, Forever Digidestined
by emichii
Summary: The Digidestined made a promise that they'd be friends forever and nothing would come before friendship. They just didn't realise how hard that promise would be to keep.
1. Episode 1!

Disclaimer: No, I don't own Digimon!!

Forever Friends,

Forever Digidestined

By emichii.

**Hi!! Welcome to Forever Friends, Forever Digidestined!! It's my 8****th**** digimon fanfic! 10****th****, if you count the crossovers too. Anyway… this is a humor/romance fic with a big theme on friendship… but mostly humor!! Eh heh… being the taiora fan I am, there'll probably be a whole lot of taiora happening later on, I'm also considering some koumi, but we'll wait and see what happens! **

**Read and review!!! Here's the first episode! **

**Episode 1: The promise!!**

"Before anything else, the Digidestined will be friends forever! Whether it is love or romance, or anything else, we'll put our friendship first!! Ain't that right?" Tai said.

Matt gave Tai a weak smile. "If you say so, Tai." he said coolly.

Sora smiled brightly. "I think it's a great idea!"

"…"Mimi bit her lip. "What do you mean, Tai? I don't really get it."

"Well…" started Tai.

Matt butted in, "What he means is that, since all of us have become such great friends when we became the Digidestined, when we return home and resume our old lives again, we'll all still be friends. Even when things like _love _start butting into it, we'll keep our friendship no matter what!" said the Digidestined with the crest of Friendship.

"Oh…" Mimi said, sounding as though she understood, but she really didn't. "Well, sure!" She added quickly.

Joe spoke, "I don't know where you guys are going with this-"

"Shut up, Joe!" T.K cried cheerfully, "that's not the point!"

"Sure, Tai," Izzy told his friend, "I think that's a good idea. We'll always put friendship before anything else."

"Hey, wait-" Joe tried to say something.

"Do we all promise?" Tai asked.

"I PROMISE!!" The seven voices of them all yelled out loud, together in unison, though Joe's was mostly a whisper.

_Yes… we'll always be together… and we'll always be friends… __always… _

_Huh… yeah__, right. _

The soccer ball bounced off the wall and hit the floor again hard, bouncing a couple of times. Fifteen-year-old Tai Kamiya, sighed, and running a hand through his poofy brown hair, carefully rolled the ball back towards his feet.

"Tai!! Hey, Tai!" A familiar voice came to his ears, accompanied by the sound of footsteps on the stairs.

Tai looked up as his bedroom door opened and Sora stood in the doorway, out of breath and hair in her face.

"…hey, Sora. Whassup?" he asked curiously.

Sora grinned at Tai. "Guess what?"

"What?"

"I was just doing some ikebana the other day when I remembered that promise we all made a coupla years ago." Sora said thoughtfully.

Tai knew what she was talking about but pretended not to know. "…what promise?" he asked as he booted the ball against the wall again and watched it roll back.

"You know the one!! We'll always put friendship before anything else! And the Digidestined will always be friends, before love, or romance, or… other stuff!"

"Oh… yeah. _That _one." Tai said.

Sora gave him a beautiful smile, cheeks flushed pale pink. "I'm glad you remember!"

Tai looked over at Sora. "So… that's what you came over here to tell me?"

Sora considered this. "Yeah, I guess so."

She turned around to leave, but then whirled around as though she had just remembered something. "Oh! I forgot…" she ran over to Tai and hugged him. "Thanks for being my best friend!! Your friendship is one of the things I treasure most, Tai!"

She turned and left his room. Her face was warm, and she stared at the steps, while she ran down them as fast as she could.

Tai watched the door slam behind her as she left, eyes widened. He felt a blush creep over his face.

_Why? _He slowly put his hand up to his cheek and felt how warm it was. Why was it that this was happening? Why did those words seem to pierce his heart?

He stared forlornly at the closed door.

_And why am I blushing? _

"_Before anything else, the Digidestined will be friends forever! Whether it is love or romance, or anything else, we'll put our friendship first!!__"_

_If only… I had known just how hard this was gonna be… _

**Yeah, it was a short chappie. ****But that's okay!! There'll be plenty more to come!! Thanks for reading! And don't forget to review! **


	2. Episode 2!

**Thankyou for all your reviews!! And yeah, I really hope I can improve every time I write! It's been a while since my last digimon fic, right? But I'll keep getting better and I'll try my very very best!!! YEAH!! Okay, chappie 2 comin' right up!! Read and review! **

**Episode 2: Future Mrs Ishida!!!**

Tai sauntered through the school doors, holding his bag over his shoulder. Man, he was totally exhausted- and his head was still spinning from yesterday. He still didn't understand the mysterious feelings going through him.

Tai stared at his feet as he walked. In his mind, he kept replaying every moment with Sora yesterday. _Why do I keep thinking about her? And why… do I keep blushing all the time? _

He was so engrossed in his feet that he didn't look up in time to avoid crashing into her.

"Oof!"

Tai looked up in shock. "Ah! Sora…" He stared at her.

Sora and Tai were standing so close, their toes were touching and they were looking at each other in awkward silence. Tai stared down at her. _When did she get so short…? _

"Um…" Sora murmured.

"Oh! Uh, yeah…" the former head of the Digidestined spoke up, "Sorry about that… I wasn't looking."

She looked up at him and flashed him a brilliant smile that sent weird feelings through Tai. "That's okay!"

Tai turned away from her. Why were they so distant now? They had been best friends for so long… they'd gone through so much together, but now it was as if they were millions of miles apart.

Tai was just trying to find his brain and make his way towards class when a blur sped past him, knocking him sideways.

"Oh!" Mimi turned around and said quickly, "Sorry, Tai! I was in a rush!! Anyway… did you see her?"

"Who?" Tai asked blankly.

"Did you see her?" Mimi asked urgently. "That girl!"

Mimi didn't give him enough time to reply. She rushed off, and hid against a nearby wall. Then as Tai and Sora watched her with sweatdrops rolling down their face, she crept towards 'the girl' like a spy, edging along the wall.

"Who is it?" wondered Tai. He looked over to Sora.

Sora was also closely watching Mimi.

Tai finally saw who Mimi was stalking. Rather badly, too. It was Matt. And some girl.

They were walking to class together and talking. For some reason it looked like they were together or something.

_I wonder if that's the girl Mimi was talking about. _Tai looked over at Sora, who had also seen Matt with the other girl. She was looking down at her feet, disappointed. And Tai felt that she looked like her feelings had been hurt.

"Sora?" he asked.

"Eh?" she wondered.

"Are you… do you…" _do you… like Matt? _

"Tai? What is it?"

"Don't worry 'bout it." Tai looked at her and gave her a cheerful grin. He turned on his heel and resting his bag over his shoulder, finally made his way to class.

Mimi was furious.

"I don't believe it!! He promised us that he'd always be our friend even if romance or love got in the way!!" she cried.

Tai blinked. Looked like he wasn't the only one who still remembered the promise.

"Well, Tai?!?" She cried angrily. "Don't you have anything to say about this? You were the one who came up with the promise!"

"Uh… well…" Tai stammered. "The truth is, even though we made that promise… we can't deny that in these past few years since we've been back, we've always been drifting apart… I guess… there's not much we can do about it…" He lowered his head and let his brown hair fall over his eyes. _The second hand of time just keeps moving… and there's nothing we can do to stop it… everything's already changed… me and Matt aren't even that close anymore… and I can't help discovering these… weird feelings about… her… _

He looked up suddenly. Everyone at the table was silent. Mimi had stood up. She was staring at the table, pink hair falling past her shoulders. The former digidestined of Sincerity had her fists clenched.

"You… don't get it, do you?" she said.

Yolie, who was sitting with them at that time, said, "Well, Mimi, it just seems as though you're jealous."

Mimi looked up and glared at her. Abruptly, she turned around and ran.

"…Mimi?!?" Sora jumped up and ran after her best friend.

Tai stared after Sora. Izzy stared at Mimi disappearing out of the room and into the corridor. Yolie stared at both of them.

Just then, Kari and TK arrived.

"Hmm? What's up?" Kari wondered.

"Where's my bro?" TK asked, looking worried. Now, most of the time, all the digidestined sat with their other friends during lunch and hung out with different people. They only all sat together about once a week to catch up, but apart from that, they hardly even exchanged words. So that's probably why, TK was looking devastated that his brother and the two other girls were nowhere to be seen.

"Tai?" Kari inspected her brother. He was just sitting in his seat, blanked-out. Kari's eyes softened. "Oh, Tai…"

"What? What?!?" Tai perked up to attention.

Kari said the next words in a whisper, but everyone else there heard, or if they didn't, they more or less already knew it.

"You still love Sora, don't ya?"

"Matt? What are you looking at?" The girl with the pretty green eyes looked at him intently.

Matt's eyes wandered towards where the pink-haired girl had run outside the school.

"It's nothing, Sayo," Matt sighed.

Sayo frowned. She shrugged and giggled. She put her arm through Matt's. "That's good, Matt."

Matt tensed. He pulled his arm away from hers. "Don't… touch me."

"Huh?"

Matt turned away from her and started walking away from her. He was heading towards the lunch table where he normally met the other former digidestined.

"…Matt!!" Sayo cried.

Matt ignored her.

Sayo kept calling out to him, determined. "You act cold all the time, Matt, but I know you like me!! And you know what? One day, I'll be Mrs. Yamato Ishida!!"

"Mimi!!" Sora ran after her best friend. Mimi ran outside the school and all the way around the school, till she stopped around a corner at a wall. She leant against it, panting hard. Sora turned around the corner. "Mimi!" she cried.

Mimi braced herself against the wall. Sora swore there were tears in her eyes.

"I'm not jealous, okay? I'm not jealous… of anyone!!" she cried.

"…" Sora ventured closer to her teary friend. "…won't you tell me what's wrong? I… can understand how you feel… and even if I can't, I want to try my best to understand your feelings…"

Mimi fell to her knees, covered her eyes with her hands and sobbed. Sora crouched next to her.

"Why… why?" Mimi shrieked. She ran her fingers through her limp, sweaty pink hair. "Why doesn't friendship last forever?"

"…" Sora was speechless.

"It's just not fair!" she cried. She wiped her tears desperately with the back of her hand. "Didn't we all… make a promise? Every one of us!! We knew… even then… that love would tear us all apart? Why… why then… if we knew that… even if we promised, why couldn't we stay together???!?" Mimi blubbered.

Sora watched her best friend sympathetically. "It's… not against the law to fall in love… or anything…"

Mimi stared at Sora. "Yeah, b-but… why can't we just stay friends forever? Why does everyone… have to be like this?!?"

Sora couldn't answer her. "It's because…"

Her eyes widened when they met Mimi's. Sora stared at her tear-streaked face. "It's because I fell in love with someone too!!" she sobbed. "And you… couldn't possibly understand what I feel right now!"

Sora reached out and hugged her tight. "No… you're wrong, Mimi… I know exactly how you feel…"

_You're not the only one… who's suffering… because I feel exactly the way you do… You aren't… the only one… who's in love with someone… _

**I told you this was a friendship fanfic, didn't I? I really like what Sora said! It's so sweet! "I… can understand how you feel… and even if I can't, I want to try my best to understand your feelings…" This chappie was originally meant to come out last week but year 8 is so stuffed with homework, I couldn't even finish this chapter!! Anyway, thanks for reading!! And please review!! **


	3. Episode 3!

**Hi you all!! I don't believe it!! I don't have as much homework as I thought I'd have!! Well… next week is exam week, so I better start studying, huh? Oh well… Thankyou for all your reviews everybody!! I appreciate them very much!! R&R!**   
**Episode 3: The spies are amateurs!! **   
"Tai? Please… just one favor for Mimi and me…" 

Tai stared at the red-eyed girl. Sora stared right back at him. "Please… it's just a small thing for Mimi, who's feeling like crap recently." "…what is it?" he asked pathetically. Sora grinned. "I knew you'd say yes!!" she squealed. "Matt's your best friend, isn't he?" she continued, seriously. "Don't you wanna look out for him all the time? Wouldn't you want to make sure he's okay, and whoever he's dating isn't treating him badly?" "Well, DUH!" "Mimi's a little worried about Matt. And she's scared that he's not so close to us anymore. I mean, even him and you aren't that good friends anymore." "What?" Tai cried. "What are you talking about? Of course we're still great friends. Why wouldn't we be?" "…" Sora was silent at Tai's sudden outburst. "…Tai?" Tai ran a hand through his brown hair. He grumbled. "I'm sorry. You're right." Sora watched him empathetically. "That's okay… I'm sorry too."   
Tai forced himself to smile. "Anyway, what was it you wanted me to do?" 

_I'm doing this for my friend. I'm doing this for my friend. Well, __friends __to be exact but still… _Tai grunted. _Why am I doing this for my friends? _ Spying. Sure, he could play soccer fine, but spying? He couldn't spy to save his life.   
XXXxxxFLASHBACKxxxXXX   
"Spy? You want me to spy on Matt?" He cried. "Um, yeah." Tai frowned. "How does spying help anyone? Matt's my friend too, you know, and he would hate us if we were spying on him!!" Mimi, who was standing next to Sora now, said, "We are helping him. I know it might sound a little presumptuous of me right now, but I just wanna do this to help Matt. You know, we are friends, and I just wanna make sure he's okay with his new… girlfriend." She said the word as though she was talking about some illegal lethal drug. "…" Tai stared hard at his shoes. Sure, he wanted to help Mimi and Sora, but he also wanted to be Matt's side as well. He could sure as hell imagine how angry Matt would be if he found out they had been spying on him. "Tai?" Sora pulled at Tai's sleeve. "Matt is your best friend. I'm sure you'd want to make sure he's alright too." "Yeah…" Tai said slowly. "Yeah, you're right."   
XXXxxxENDFLASHBACKxxxXXX   
Tai had trailed Matt and Sayo for a while now. He'd have given up a long time ago, but he couldn't right now because Sora was right behind him. Sora had decided to help Tai on his "mission". But having her around wasn't helping the complete amateur of a spy at all.   
Sayo and Matt walked down a busy city street. Tai and Sora crept behind them, staying a good couple of meters back at all times. Luckily for them, it was easy to be unrecognized, with all the people bustling around. "Where are they going?" Tai wondered. Sora watched them carefully. "Oh, they're going forward… and now they turning… in there!!" Sora was watching them so closely she failed to remember where she was, accidentally bashing into some guy. "Ah!! I'm sorry!" she cried immediately. "Watch where you're going next time!" said the angry guy as he stormed off. Tai caught up to Sora. "What's with him?" he asked in annoyance. They went on. 

Matt was so, so sure that someone was stalking him. No, he was absolutely certain. Maybe it was the Paparazzi. Matt ignored all the weird creepy feelings he felt. Sayo tugged at his arm. "Matt, what's wrong?" Matt frowned. "I don't know. I just feel like someone's stalking me." Sayo gasped. "Well, what should we do?" Matt picked up the pace. "Come on, let's get going! We have to lose them." 

"Why are they walking so fast?!?" complained Sora. She and Tai dodged various people and traffic as they struggled to keep up with Matt. They ran through the streets avoiding stepping on little kids. "They've gone in there." Tai said. He stopped to look at the empty alleyway that Matt and Sayo had ducked through. "C'mon, let's go." Tai and Sora stepped into the alleyway. Immediately, Matt heard their footsteps and turned his head swiftly.   
"Matt? Whatcha looking at?" Sayo's voice was curious. "…nothing." 

…_that was close…_ Sweat was on Tai's forehead. He had just ducked behind a wall and pulled Sora behind him.   
They carefully trailed Matt after that. It was going pretty successful for a while there. Then something bad happened. 

Matt was acting very strange. Sayo wondered what was going on. But he wouldn't tell her, except for what he had said before. 

_I really think someone's following us, and I think it might be Tai and the others. _Matt whipped his head around again. No-one was there, he just saw two people disappearing into a shop. "Let's run, Sayo," he said. He grabbed her hand and dragged her along behind him. They ran fast but he still felt he was being followed. He turned around again, and this time he saw them. "Tai? Sora?" he cried incredously. "What are you doing here?"   
She looked scared. And he was nervous. "Uhh…" Sora stammered. Matt stood face-to-face with Tai. Before they had been practically the same height, but Matt was just a little taller now. Plus, with his menacing, I'm-gonna-kill-someone glare, he was also looking very frightening. "Why were you spying on me?" he asked angrily. Sora wasn't saying anything, so Tai figured he'd have to do it. "Matt, we were following you to make sure you were okay. I mean, we don't know anything about your new girlfriend, and you haven't said anything about her, so we just wanted to make sure-" "Make sure of what? Make sure that you can just ruin everything?" Matt said sharply. "No! We're your friends!" Tai cried. "We're here to protect you and check that you're okay!" "Some friends!" Matt yelled back. "Tai, that's really low! You know that I don't like being spied on, or stalked!" "…Matt," Sora pleaded. "We did it for Mimi. She was really worried about you. She just wanted to make sure that-" "It was Mimi, was it? I'm gonna kill that girl." Matt said furiously. He grabbed the confused-looking Sayo by the hand and started walking away. "Matt! You don't get it!" Sora cried, running after him. "What I don't get is why Tai, who was my best friend, would do such a thing as to-" Sora yelled, "Yeah, but Mimi is MY best friend, and I would do these things for her!! She was so worried about you Matt! She was worried because she cared about you, because she's your friend!" Matt kept walking. He ran across the road with Sayo in tow, not looking back. Tai chased after Sora, who was chasing after Matt. Sora was so fired up right now; her face was red and hair sticking to her sweaty forehead. "BUT MATT, MIMI LOVES YOU!!!"   
"SORAA!" Tai yelled all of a sudden. It was a cry of anguish and panic and concern all mixed into one. His eyes stared at her, so wide, with a horrified expression. He was unable to tear his eyes away, he couldn't look away. He ran towards her as fast as he could. His legs pumped up and down. 

_God, _he prayed, _let me get there in time!! _   
Sora's eyes widened. Car tires squealed, the driver shouting out. The car came so fast, she couldn't avoid it.   
Tai barreled across the road. He grabbed Sora and flung his weight across the road and got them both safely onto the other side of the road. He breathed hard, panting, as he was out of breath. Tai leaned over Sora, who was still shivering with fright at what had just happened.   
The car went past; with the driver yelling swear words out the window.   
"Man…" Tai managed to say, while still panting. "I really thought… I was gonna lose ya…" Sora stared at the former Digidestined leader. Her heart was beating so fast. "Thanks… Tai," she whispered. Tai gazed at her and said, "Don't do that... again…" Sora could only stare blankly ahead as he tightened his arms around her and hugged her tight. _You'd risk yourself like that… for me? But why? Why would you do something like that, Tai…? _ Sora placed her hands on Tai's arms. "Tai…" she said. 

"Sora?!?" Her words were sharply spoken but trembled a little. Sora and Tai looked up. "Mimi?" 

Mimi stood there and stared down at them. Her hands were trembling and so was her lower lip. Her voice shook. "Why would you..." The great atmosphere of betrayal. Sora stood up. "Ah! Mimi…!" Mimi walked close up to Sora. She glared at her. She raised her hand and slapped her hard across the cheek. Sora stared, feeling the fresh pain sear across her cheek. "Why would you do that?!?" she wailed. "You told me you understood how I felt!! You said you'd always support me!! You told me… that our friendship would last forever… you said that friendship would come first… but why…" she sobbed, "Why would you do this to me?" "M-Mimi-" Sora started. "I don't understand…" Mimi cried, "You said that you'd help me… because you felt the same way I did… but you didn't help me at all! You just… you just… decided to… you'd get together with someone else and leave me by myself… with Tai- even though, Tai, you were the one who made this whole promise thing up in the first place!!" The last sentence was addressed to Tai. "Mimi, but-" Sora tried to say something. But Mimi just sniffed back tears, and with a flick of her long pink hair, she was gone. 

She ran down the street, tears in her eyes. She heard the sounds of her footsteps so loud, echoing over and over again. 

_Why… do I have to be so stupid? _She kept running. She didn't even know where she was going. But she was tired. She slowed down at a wall. Leaning against it, she scolded herself. _Oh… what am I meant to do now…? Now I've hurt my best friend and… I didn't even listen to what she had to say… how can I be so selfish?!? I'm always thinking of myself, I don't even realize… that I should be caring for my friends too… _Mimi stared at her feet. But how could she apologize? After what she had just done. She looked up. In the distance, she saw Matt walking by with Sayo. 

Tears pricked at her eyes. _I'm so dumb. _ "…Mimi?" Mimi jerked up to attention. Izzy came out from around the corner. He looked so concerned for her. Tears rolled down her cheeks. She wiped them away in a hurry. "Mimi…" he said, "…why are you crying?" 

**That's all for this week!! Eh heh… the next chappie will be called IZZY TO THE RESCUE!! I've always thought Izzy/Mimi was cute. Actually a long time ago, early last year, I wrote a koumi. It was called Not Good Enough, and it was pretty cool!! ** ** but I kinda got stuck on it, so I never put it on the internet, or started the second chapter. Hey, now that I think about it, the plot was pretty awesome. ** **It started with Mimi and Izzy going out on a date, and Mimi bending down to kiss him, but then she said: "Ah!! This will ruin my reputation!!" and she said she was sorry and she went off in a hurry. Izzy got all depressed. Then he went to Tai and said, "Tai, since you're a popular athlete guy, make me into a tall cool handsome guy in a month so that Mimi will like me!" ** **GRIN!! Dontcha think that would've actually been a pretty cute fic! I had planned that the end would have Mimi finally giving Izzy his well-deserved kiss and saying that she liked him just the way he was. ** **Now that I think about it, it could've been a really great fic if I had actually tried to pull it off. It does seem a bit cliché tho… ah well. Some day I'll rewrite it and make it better than ever!! ** **Until next chappie then, Seeya!! Read and review!! **


	4. Episode 4!

**Hi everyone!! Thanks for all your reviews and all your support!! Here's episode 4!!**

**Episode 4: Izzy to the rescue!!**

Mimi stared at the short red-haired guy who watched her quietly. For once he actually looked taller than her, but that was because by now, she was kneeling on the ground crying and he was standing up there looking down at her.

"Hey, Mimi… what's wrong?" he asked, eyebrows creased in deep concern.

Mimi sniffed. "Nothing… is wrong…" she said.

Izzy crouched down beside him and said gently, "Please don't cry, Mimi."

Mimi peeked at him. She took a deep breath. "Thanks for worrying about me." she gave him a tiny smile.

Izzy felt a flood of relief rush over him. "That's okay."

She was still crying, but he stayed by her side until she stopped.

Izzy was feeling just as confused as Mimi was. Sure, she had always been his friend, but now he was confused.

He remembered the promise Tai had made them all swear to, but back then he had thought it was a load of bull. He thought Tai had said that because he was feeling all sentimental and caught up in the moment or something, so he agreed, since he thought it'd be a cinch.

But now, while Izzy watched her sniff and wipe away tears, he finally could understand everything Tai had said. She was still his friend, but he couldn't help it. He wanted to stay by her side always, he wanted to comfort her and tell her it was all right.

_I'm an idiot, _he thought to himself.

Mimi sniffed back the last of her tears and was finally feeling a little better. She remembered the hurt look on Sora's face when she had yelled at her. And she remembered Tai's face as well, she saw it then. She saw that he always looked at Sora with love, and now she remembered all those other times Tai was always with Sora.

_Of course…_ she said to herself. _All along… all along… Tai's loved her, but for her sake and everyone else's he held himself back. He never wanted anything to get in front of our friendship. _

She smiled. As though she finally understood. The last of her tears fell to the floor with a small splash. She stood up, feeling much happier.

"I'm glad you're better, Mimi."

Mimi looked to her side in shock. "Izzy, you're still here."

He looked sheepish.

Mimi thought about this. Was it because he was there, beside her, that she had cheered up so quickly? And when he was there, though he didn't say much, when he was there, she felt so much better. He was there to let her know she wasn't alone. And she felt so much better knowing that.

Mimi smiled at the shorter boy. "Thankyou," she said. "Thankyou…"

And she hugged him.

Tai watched Sora. She looked so sad, so hurt, and so wistful as she stood there alone.

He wanted to comfort her and hold her tight but he couldn't.

Sora turned and looked at Tai.

He was shocked at the tears in her eyes.

"Tai, what am I going to do?" she cried, "Mimi's angry at me and she was crying! She looked so hurt… I don't know… what should I do?"

Tai gazed at her tenderly. "…" He reached out and put a hand on her head.

"Eh?" Sora wondered.

"…don't worry too much," he gave her a lop-sided grin. "You guys made a promise, right? Even if you guys fight, you'll always be friends again."

"…" Sora looked helpless and tears kept falling down her face.

Tai started to go, not looking back at her.

"Sora!!" Mimi cried as she ran to the scene.

Sora looked at Mimi alarmed. "M-Mimi, you came back… Ah!! I'm sorry…" Sora started.

Mimi went all the way up to Sora and frowned furiously at her friend. "What nonsense are you spouting now? You shouldn't be sorry!! I'm the one who should be! After all… I guess… I was just too… I didn't even listen… to what you had to say…" she said quietly.

"Mimi," Izzy said, who was standing nearby, encouraging her.

Mimi stared sadly at the floor. _It was my fault… for the sake of getting what I want… I hurt other people in the process… I'm so selfish… _

"Mimi?!?" Sora cried startled.

Mimi felt the familiar tears run down her face. "I'm so sorry… it's all my fault… Just because I was being selfish- maybe because I was so worried about Matt- for all my own reasons, I selfishly forced you two to do this all for me…"

"No… Mimi," Sora interrupted, placing a hand on Mimi's shoulder. "I did it for a friend."

Mimi sniffed. "…I'm sorry… I didn't even think, before I said all those horrible things to you… how are you ever gonna forgive me… I-I want to be sincere… I want to be able to listen to what you have to say… I wanna understand… just like what you've always done for me, Sora… but I didn't… and I've hurt you, and I've hurt others just for myself… I'm sorry… I'm so sorry!!" she sobbed.

Sora brushed tears from her own eyes. "It's okay, Mimi…"

"WAAAHHHH!!!" Mimi gushed.

The best friends hugged each other tightly. Izzy looked on happily.

_Yeah… it's true… _Mimi thought sincerely, _I've had to hurt people to get what I want… I don't want to… _

She glanced at Izzy's smiling face. _Thankyou… thanks so much for helping me realize that… Izzy… _

Sora and Mimi hugged each other and then let go. Sora looked happy again, and Tai was delighted.

"Um… Tai!" Sora called out, just as Tai was about to leave.

"Huh?" He turned.

Sora smiled brightly. "Thanks!"

Tai felt something weird happen in his stomach, and it wasn't his lunch. Sadness started searing through him again, but he pushed it away. Instead, he just grinned his typical Tai grin.

"No problem! Friendship always comes before Love!"

Then he turned and walked away, as fast as he could. As soon as Sora couldn't see him, his smile faded away. _If only… that could be true… _

**That's the end of Episode 4!! I hope you enjoyed it!! It seems these episodes are kinda short… but that's okay!! Anyway, next up… Sora and Mimi are best friends again, and everyone seems happy… but Matt!! And also, it seems that soon the Digidestined are gonna lose another one of their friends- but who?!? Dun dun dun daaaahhh!! **

**cue play 'see you next time' music**

**Well then, bye for now!! Read and review! emichii**


	5. Episode 5!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. **

**This is episode 5!! Read and review everyone!! **

**Episode 5: Joe's moving away?!??? **

When Tai walked into school the next day, he suddenly remembered something that made his stomach turn over uncomfortably. He grumbled as he went and got his books for his first class.

_Crap! I totally forgot… _

Matt walked past him and their eyes met for a moment. Matt's were cold and ice blue and they glared at him full of anger.

_Matt's still angry at me! _Tai remembered.

Tai avoided Matt's gaze as he went into class. That was kinda hard considering that they sat next to each other. Tai slowly put his books down and slowly sat down and pretended to be concerntrating on pointless maths problems but in truth, his brain was in turmoil because he wasn't sure what to do. What was he meant to say?

Matt stood at his desk across from Tai and he couldn't help feeling betrayed. His eyes were still flashing angrily.

_I don't understand! _He yelled in his head as he slammed his books onto the desk.

_I don't know why! _He thought as he sat down grumpily.

He noticed the pink-haired girl quietly enter the classroom. She crept past Matt's desk but snuck a glance at him while she passed.

_Why would Tai ever do something like that?!? _He frowned.

Tai went through the class in a daze and later on, he ran into his old pal Izzy.

"Hi Izzy," Tai said.

"Hi." Izzy said gloomily. "How are ya?"

"Okay, I guess." Tai replied equally gloomy.

"Hm? What's happening here?" A bright goofy Davis-like voice popped up. Davis who was two years younger than Tai and Izzy butted in. He grinned. "You both look miserable."

"Like you'd know," Tai muttered.

Davis shook his head. "It's okay, guys. I know exactly what's wrong. Your love life sucks, doesn't it, Tai?!?" He turned and cheerfully walked away.

_That damn little- _

"Tai!"

Both Tai and Izzy looked up in alarm. It was Sora and she was looking very upset. She went up to her fellow former Digidestined.

"Hey… Sora, are you okay?" Tai asked.

Sora said, "Joe's moving away, Tai!! The Digidestined are getting separated even more."

Tai was quiet for a while. "What do you mean?"

Sora grabbed Tai's arm and shook it up and down. "Joe's moving to Australia!!"

"AUSTRALIA?!?!?" They all repeated.

Izzy was very confused. "Why would he want to go over there?"

Tai said bluntly. "Don't they ride kangaroos to work every day or something?"

"Anway," Sora said, "What are we gonna do? Joe's moving away!! It'll be so weird!"

Izzy said blankly, "Yeah, but, why are you so worried about it all of a sudden? Remember that it's already been two years since we were all in the Digital World together. Did you forget, Sora? We all came back but didn't you notice that we've all drifted apart now? Can't you see that the Digidestined aren't even… very good friends… anymore…?"

Sora looked stricken.

Tai frowned at Izzy. "Don't say that!" he rebuked him.

Tai smiled a small smile. "Well…" he said, "Izzy, maybe you're right. It's true that the Digidestined seems to have headed off in different directions, but it won't change our bond with each other. We'll always be friends no matter what-"

Tai's thoughts drifted off as he was talking. He remembered Matt and the hurt look in his eyes yesterday.

"-but," Tai continued. "But I think we'll be friends. Always. I mean, yeah, we've drifted off but we'll be okay. We… made a promise, didn't we?"

"…Yeah." said Izzy slowly.

Tai looked over at Sora and grinned. "That's why we've gotta do everything possible to stop Joe from moving to Australia!"

"Hey, Matt…"

The blonde rock-star lifted his head. He frowned when he saw Tai.

"Uh, hey," Tai said awkwardly, "…I'm really sorry about yesterday-"

"Why did you do that anyway?" Matt asked, looking deceived.

"…" Tai looked at his feet. "Well… well…"

"Tai!" Matt said, impatiently.

"I did it for Sora. And she did it for Mimi. Mimi was feeling really… crappy before. 'Cuz ya know, she… she was really affected by you dating Sayo. I mean, yeah, we really have gone in so many different directions since we were the Digidestined, but we should still stay friends, right? I guess Mimi couldn't help feeling as though Sayo was taking you away from us."

Matt stared at Tai. "Wha…What kind of nonsense are you saying?"

"Huh?"

The Digidestined with the crest of Friendship looked at Tai seriously. "Who said that we weren't friends anymore?"

Tai considered this. Then he broke into a carefree grin. "That means you're not mad at me anymore, right?"

Matt smiled one of his stunning yet rare smiles. "Yeah, guess so."

Tai grinned even harder then he slapped his best friend really hard on the back. "Yeah! I knew you couldn't stay mad at me for too long!"

"Heh."

"Oh, by the way," Matt said, while he and Tai were walking through the school hallways. "You know that Joe's moving away, don't you?"

"Yeah," said Tai glumly. "I feel kinda bad because… well, I don't want him to leave or anything because then it'd break up the Digidestined even more but it's kinda selfish of me too, since I haven't been such a good friend to him since we got back."

Matt didn't say anything.

He was deep in thought. _You never really realize it at first but we'd been a team for so long. And I guess… we're still a team but we can't help going separate ways. Still, though we tried to stick together… we just can't help it but our bond seems to be gone… Nothing is the same anymore, and I just can't stop feeling like this… Separation always makes us feel so lonesome… _

Joe could feel their penetrating gaze in his back though he ignored it. The blue-haired boy went on, taking his books out of his locker, going on with his own business.

As he picked the books up, he felt sadness rushing in through him.

_I wonder why… ever since we came back… ever since we went in different directions… why was I the one that everyone forgot about? _

He slammed his locker shut. Hearing the slamming sound echoing over and over in his head, Joe watched Tai and Matt walk away together.

_I wonder why… why doesn't anyone think of me? Was I just an unimportant side character? Why was I even included in the Digidestined? _

Joe smiled a tiny, sad smile to himself and walked away in the opposite direction to the other two.

_And I'm sure no-one will miss me when I'm gone. _

**What are you talking about, Joe?!?! Of course they'll miss you!! Without you, the seven Digidestined will be… …the six Digidestined!?!? Anyway, that's all for chapter five. See ya all next week!! Read and review!! **


	6. Episode 6!

**Disclaimer: Don't own Digimon. It's owned by Toei Animation and Hongo-sensei. **

**Hiya ya all!! thanks so much for all your reviews!! Here's chapter 6!! Hope you enjoy!! R&R!!**

**Episode 6: Panic, everybody, panic!!! **

The Former Digidestined with the Crest of Reliability was leaving school when he crashed into Izzy.

"Oh… uh, hey." He stammered.

Izzy barely looked at him. "Hi Joe."

"S-Sorry for crashing into you,"

"That's okay, I wasn't looking." Then the computer genius went on his way.

Joe felt his heart sink. Did they even know he was going to move away? Weren't they even gonna stop him? Oh, but then again, obviously they wouldn't miss him. They'd never given him any attention. He was just a side-character.

Joe tightened his grip on his bag that was slung around his shoulder and walked faster, this time with a more purposeful stride.

_That's why… I'm moving. Because I'm sure there will be others out there who will appreciate me… and because I'm not needed here anyway. _

Joe smiled to himself. But it wasn't a happy one. It was one intended to cheer him up, but all it did was make him feel worse.

Joe closed his eyes for a moment to think. _It'll be okay soon. Soon. _

_Soon I'll be out of Odaiba. _

"Hey!!! Captain!!!" Tomo waved his arms to get Tai's attention.

Tai jerked to attention. "Huh? What is it?"

Tomo ran all the way to Tai. "Hey, Tai, what's with you today anyway?"

"What do you mean?" Tai asked.

"Well, Captain, you haven't been playing attention during the game at all and you missed two goals. It really isn't like you,"

Tai considered this. "Um… I dunno…"

Tomo just chuckled. "Well, that's okay. I just hope you'll be paying more attention next practice!! Cuz our team really needs you, Tai!" He waved as he ran off.

It had already been a week since Tai had discovered that Joe was moving away. Joe still hadn't said anything about it to his fellow former Digidestined, and he wasn't giving any hints. However, thanks to his information-gathering friend Izzy, Tai already knew that Joe was moving away on the weekend.

That was why Tai was so troubled and bummed out during soccer training.

Tai couldn't help smiling to himself as he grabbed his soccer gear off the bleachers and started to head towards the change rooms.

_Tomo's a really nice guy, _he thought, _he's a great friend and a great person to have in the soccer team. _

_It's already been a week now, and I haven't even done a thing. I promised Sora… and I told the others that I would do something to stop Joe from leaving but until now… I still haven't figured out what to do yet. _

Tai took off his shin-guards and soccer boots all the while thinking. _My soccer team is so awesome and all my friends are so great… I'd never want to leave them… _He dropped his shoes into the sports bag. _Why would Joe even want to move away? And I'm sure it's not for school or studying or anything. He could be a perfectly good doctor here in Odaiba too. _

Tai got changed real fast and headed home.

He watched his feet as he walked. He counted his steps, as he went on, still in deep thought.

_And I especially want to know why he'd move to another country. _Tai frowned furiously. _I mean, if he stayed in Japan, we'd still be in contact; but if he went to Aus then we'd probably never see each other again!! _

As he reached the Kamiya apartment, realization dawned on him.

_Joe… doesn't think his friends will miss him. He thinks that we never even were good friends to begin with!! _

Tai tore into his room, not caring that he hadn't taken off his shoes and had probably left dirty shoe marks all over the floor. He threw his bag down and ran back out of his room.

"Hey… Tai?" Kari asked, bewildered at her brother's strange behavior.

Tai didn't reply, instead he hurriedly ran out of the apartment.

_I can't believe for so long, Joe had been feeling so lonely. If we hadn't been there to talk to him or be his friend he should have said so!! _

Tai's eyes widened as he suddenly slowed down to a halt. _If we… hadn't been there to talk to… or be his friend…?! He doesn't need to ask!! We were meant to be his friends all along… we just never acted like them!! We… were never even there for him… _

Tai stared at the ground. _It's all my fault!! He never would've wanted to leave if it weren't for me!! _

He started running again. He ran all the way to Joe's place, the Kido residence.

He rang the bell. There was no-one there.

"Dammit!!" he grunted. He was defeated for a moment as he walked away. Then he decided he should try calling Joe.

He whipped out his mobile and flipped through his contacts.

The floor dropped from beneath him. Tai was devastated. _I don't have his number!?!?!!! _

_What kinda friend am I?!? I don't even have his phone number!! _Tai practically had tears in his eyes.

He held his phone tightly as he started sprinting towards the Izumi place. _C'mon, c'mon, Izzy!! You've gotta have Joe's number!! _

Izzy was alarmed as his room door was flung open abruptedly by a very harassed-looking and covered with sweat Tai.

"Hey… Tai?!? What's up?" He wondered, wide-eyed.

Tai stood there in the doorway for a moment, breathing hard and chest heaving up and down. "Izzy… Izzy!! Please tell me you've got Joe's number!!"

"Joe's number…" muttered Izzy, as he looked through the contents of one of his desk drawers. "Hey, wait. Isn't he moving away tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow?!? I thought it was this weekend!" Tai yelped.

"But today's Friday!!" Izzy cried as he chucked a wad of paper to Tai. "Oh crap!! Just the other day I bumped into him and I didn't even give him a second glance!!"

Izzy stood up furiously. "AARGHHHH!!"

Tai was frowning furiously, "Hey, I know we all like to scream to relieve ourselves of stress right now but I really need to talk to Joe!!" he cried, while frantically pressing keys on his phone.

Izzy watched Tai nervously. Then he watched Tai slam down the paper and say loudly, "He's turned off his phone!!"

Izzy tried to keep a calm mind while thinking things through at alarming speeds. "Wait! I have his mum's number too! Mrs Kido, right?"

Tai started dialing away; hoping that she'd be there and she'd know where Joe was.

"Hello?!? Mrs Kido?!? Oh yeah, this is Tai… right, do you know where Joe is? … … … WHAT?!?! HE'S AT THE AIRPORT ALREADY?!?!?"

"Oh yeah," Mrs Kido's voice was bright and excited. "His flight leaves in an hour. He was meant to leave tomorrow but he decided to go earlier."

Tai finished his call. "Izzy!! He's at the airport right now!! He's gonna go and leave for Aus in an hour!!" he cried.

Izzy grabbed his own phone and started speed dialing in a way that only pros like himself could do. "Oh, man, Tai, we gotta call everybody right away and tell them to get to the airport!! If everyone's together, maybe we can get him to stay!!"

"Right!!" Tai shouted.

Tai and Izzy dialed and talked so fast that they were mentally and physically exhausted. But the battle wasn't over yet. Tai finally put away his phone and then started out the door.

"C'mon Izzy, we gotta go!!" he exclaimed.

"I'm coming!!" Izzy said as he ran out the door behind Tai.

Though they were all in different places just then, the Digidestined moved as one. Every one of them were racing, fighting and practically killing themselves to get to the airport in one hour and find Joe.

Only Joe stood alone there, watching the clock on the airport wall. Soon, he'd be outta there.

**Man… I'm so exhausted. While I was writing that chappie I was about just as excited and agitated as Tai was. I was literally typing away and my heart was beating like crazy. It was really exhausting!! There'll be more to come. The next chappie will probably be just as fast-paced. After all, they'll be chasing Joe all over a huge airport and hijacking a plane… I'm really tired… thanks for reading!!**

**Don't forget to review!! **


	7. Episode 7!

**Yo, whuzzup?!? emichii here!! About the hijacking plane thing, it's proving to be difficult so I'm actually not so sure what will happen!! So please, support me and review!! Thanks for all your support so far, everybody!! **

**Episode 7: Stopping you every step of the way!! **

"C'mon!! Let's go!! Let's go!! Let's go!!!" Sora's voice was urgent and distressed. "We have to get there right now!! We can't let Joe go to Australia!! We can't let him get on that plane!!"

Mimi breathed hard and pink hair stuck to her sweaty forehead as she ran next to Sora. Sora was faster than her from tennis, but Sora still had to slow down to wait for her best friend to catch up.

Mimi panted. "Oh, man!! Why'd he have to go and decide to leave now?!?"

"That's what I want to know!!!"

The two girls raced to the airport as fast as they could.

Mimi was thinking: _Man, I so should have gotten Dad to drive us there!! _

Sora just concentrated on not tripping as they pounded up the stairs into the airport. When at last, they went through the clean glass doors, they were greeted with a huge noisy bustle of people and tourists with ten tones of luggage each; kids were running around amok and riding on those little trolleys that were meant for luggage.

"How are we meant to find Joe in all this?" Mimi exclaimed.

Sora frowned. "Tai and Izzy should be here already, and Matt and T.K are meant to be on their way here!"

They struggled to push their way through a huge bunch of people. Sora looked up when she heard Tai's voice.

"Hey!! Sora!! Mimi!"

Sora struggled through the crowd and finally got through. Tai stood there, with Izzy at his side.

Tai looked concerned. "Ah!! H-hey… are you okay?" he asked, looking at Sora's flushed face.

"Yeah, I'm fine… just a bit worn out," Sora managed to gasp. Then she smiled and said, "But I gotta do all this for my friend, don't I?"

Izzy looked at his watch and said, "I know we're meant to wait for Matt and T.K but we can't wait any longer!! Joe's plane leaves in… fifteen minutes!! We've got to get into the checkpoint area and we've got to find him!!"

The colour drained from Tai's face. _…find Joe??! In a whole huge airport?!?!? _

The young blonde teenage boy adjusted the sunglasses on his nose. He stepped out of the car and looked at the airport doors.

"Hey… so what are we gonna do know?" asked the boy standing next to him.

The first boy smirked. "We're gonna be causing a little trouble… but it'll be all for a good cause…" He rolled up his sleeves and motioned for the other boy to follow. "Now let's go and catch ourselves a Digidestined!!"

"_Could all passengers boarding the 137 flight to Sydney, Australia, please go to checkpoint 4? All passengers boarding 137 flight to Sydney go to checkpoint 4 please. Thankyou." _

Tai growled at the intercom lady. (Not that he knew where she was, and not that she could see him.)

"Crap!!" He cried. "They're calling them to get to the checkpoint! What if he's already in there? We can't get in there without out a ticket and our passports!!"

Sora looked panicked, but still remained hopeful. "Don't worry; let's go to the checkpoint anyway. We'll wait outside the door and try to get Joe before he gets inside."

"R-right!" Tai agreed.

Sora and Tai took off towards the checkpoint and Izzy and Mimi kept looking for Joe in the other areas in the airport.

"Is that him? Is that him?" Tai struggled to look over the shoulder of an incredibly tall man with a child perched on his shoulders.

Sora frowned. "No… where is he?"

They weaved and ducked through various people, but there was still no sign of Joe.

Sweat ran down Tai's face. _C'mon… please!! _He pleaded with himself. _I know it was partly my fault… a lot of it was my fault but Joe's still out friend… he's still a Digidestined and we're not gonna let him leave just like this!! So please… let me just… find him!!! _

"…Tai?" wondered Sora.

Tai turned to Sora and gave her a hopeful grin. He seemed to have lifted up his spirits.

"All right then," he said, determined again. "Let's go find Joe!!"

Almost immediately, after he had said that, he spotted a blue-haired guy on the other side of the corridor behind a huge crowd of people.

"There he is!!" Tai cried. The soccer player expertly dodged and weaved his way through all the people, all at extreme speed.

"JOOOEEEE!!!" He yelled.

Joe's eyes widened. He looked around nervously and examined everyone around him.

"Huh?" he asked. "Did someone call me?"

Joe sighed. _Musta been dreaming. _

He glanced in his watch and yelped. "AAH!! CRUD!! The plane's leaving in 10 minutes!!!" Joe tightened his grip on his carry bag and ran for the checkpoint door. He was just passing it when-

"OH NO YOU DON'T!!!" Someone said loudly through gritted teeth.

Next thing Joe knew he was on the ground and someone was sitting on him. People whispered and gave them furtive glances as they hurriedly passed by.

Tai had jumped Joe just when he was passing and now Joe was on the ground and Tai was sitting on top of him. Tai got to his feet quickly, "Oh!! Sorry about that, Joe! I didn't mean for you to fall, but I'm not sorry that I jumped you,"

Joe stood up. Tai said seriously, "Look, Joe, I know I haven't been a very good friend lately, in fact, I haven't been a friend to you at all since we came back to Odaiba, but that doesn't mean you should just get up and go to Aus!!"

Joe glowered silently. He brushed himself off. "Sheesh, Tai, you didn't have to tackle me so hard," he complained.

Tai defended himself, "But you'll be getting a lot more of this in Australia, what with all the footy and AFL and rugby and everything!"

Joe pushed his glasses back onto his nose silently. "Sorry, Tai, but I've got to go," he said quickly. _Goodbye. _

Joe showed his ticket to the officers and quickly ran through the double glass doors into the checkpoint area.

Tai looked dismayed.

Sora noticed this and felt incredible sadness for Tai, who looked as though he had been betrayed. She ran after Joe and through the doors.

The checkpoint officers gaped. One of them immediately picked up his little speaker phone thingy and shouted into it that 'some girl had just run into the checkpoint without a ticket'.

"ARGH!! SORA!!" yelled Tai, over the bemused and bewildered crowd. "You can't go in there!"

Sora turned around to answer, but only for a split second before the guards would catch her. "But Tai, you said we'd all be friends forever… and if this is what it takes to save a friendship, then that's what I'm gonna do!!"

The ex-Digidestined of Love quickly ducked under two attacking officers and made a run for it, after Joe.

Tai's eyes widened as the reality of Sora's words came into effect. Then he set his jaw and took a deep breath.

_Yeah… if this is what it takes to save a friendship… then I'm still going to stop you every step of the way, Joe!! I won't let you get on that plane!!! _

With only 7 minutes till the plane took off, Izzy and Mimi were frantic and impatient.

Mimi cried, "Ohh!! What are we gonna do? He's leaving!!" The pink-haired girl looked around her frantically.

Izzy said seriously, "Okay, we've got no choice."

"Huh?" Mimi looked frightened.

Izzy grabbed Mimi's hand and pulled her towards a door labeled AIRPORT STAFF ONLY. They ran into and office and up a whole flight of stairs to the very top of the airport.

"…huh… huh…" Mimi panted. "What… are you up to, Izzy?" she gasped out.

Izzy looked determined. "Time for hacking into airport computer systems!!" He declared.

"WHAAT?!?" Mimi screamed.

Izzy hurriedly locked the door they came from and turned to face the confused airport staff. He said, "I know I wasn't the strongest Digidestined around, but when my friends are depending on me, I can do anything!!" He knocked all the officers down and quickly ran to the computer.

There were screens and flashing buttons and weird, weird-looking controls all over the place and even Izzy felt sweat on his neck as he stared at what looked like the inside of an alien spacecraft.

He sat down and started typing away furiously, while keeping an eye on his watch to see how much time there was left.

There was a sudden knock on the door and both Izzy and Mimi froze when they heard it. Mimi gave out a scared squeal.

"Hey!! Dude!! Let us in!!" It was Matt's voice. T.K was the one banging on the door.

Both Mimi and Izzy let out a relieved sigh.

Mimi hurriedly let Matt in. And if they hadn't been in such a huge panic and confusion, then they would've started arguing with each other or something, but they momentarily forgot about their previous differences.

"Matt, I knew you wouldn't let us down," Izzy said not taking his eyes off the computer screen.

Matt grinned. "Yeah, anything to help a friend. I'm the Digidestined of Friendship after all."

T.K agreed whole-heartedly with his older brother.

Izzy grinned to himself as he kept pressing buttons. He looked down at the airport from through the glass windows so that he could see. He could see Joe running around being chased by Tai and Sora who were running around like headless chickens and being chased by a whole swarm of airport officers.

Izzy could see the plane about to take off.

"What should we do?" he asked.

Matt said casually, "Let's hijack the plane!!"

Izzy frowned as he kept pressing the buttons. "I don't know what we'll have to do but… no matter what… we're gonna stop Joe from leaving… every step of the way!!!"

**Yeah… this story arc was meant to end this chapter, but it was too, too long! Anyway, thanks for all your reviews!! Please read and review! **


	8. Episode 8!

**Yes, every Digidestined!!! Fight!! Fight!! Keep fighting to the end!! Hey, emichii here!! WHASSUP?!? Thankyou so so so much for all your reviews!! They make me so happy!! **

**Believe it or not, but emichii now has three fans!! Well actually I probably have more but there are three people that have said it to me directly!! Thanks for reading!! And thanks for all the readers that keep following all of my work!! **

**Read and review! **

**Episode 8: Fight, Digidestined!! **

Sora ran through the airport checkpoint, not taking her eyes of the blue-haired figure who was running a couple of metres in front of her.

_Damn that airport dude! _She swore under her breath. Now that he had announced her as someone who was sneaking in without paying, everyone was looking for her and people were chasing her around.

Still, she wouldn't give up.

"Sora!!"

Sora turned around at the mention of her name. Tai was there, right behind her, poofy brown hair in sweaty clumps as he continued running painfully.

"Tai?" she spluttered. "When did you…"

"Well, you were willing to take a chance just to rescue this friendship, and 'cause you did it, so will I!" Tai gave a brave, cheerful but goof grin.

Sora almost vomited in shock horror when her cheeks started flaming bright red.

_Why is this happening?!?!?!? AAARRGHH!! _She struggled to keep her emotions in control and keep running in a straight line to avoid crashing into a nearby pole.

A small bead of sweat ran down her flushed face. _Yeah… I must… friendship comes before love, right? _

Tai was looking at her curiously, wondering what was up. Instead of explaining, Sora rushed ahead even faster.

"C'mon, Tai!" she shouted. "Let's go get Joe!!"

Mimi paced from one end of the room to the other. She was wailing: "Oh, what are we meant to do?!??!?"

T.K was also frowning so furiously, that his eyebrows met in the middle of his forehead and made him look like he just had one huge eyebrow that stretched across his face.

Even Matt had dropped the casual and calm exposure. He stood beside Izzy nervously watching the mastermind hacker pressing buttons.

"What are you up to now?" he asked.

Izzy kept typing furiously, not even looking up to reply. "I'm trying to abort the flight!! If I can get through to the pilot, then I just need to press the abort button and then he won't take off!!"

Mimi wailed again, "But the plane's leaving in just a few minutes!!"

Izzy bit his lip. "I know."

Just then, one of the airport staff sat up in a daze. He looked around the room and the uninvited guests in the office.

"HEY!" he shouted, jumping up to his feet. "What are you doing here?!?"

Mimi shrieked in alarm.

Matt turned around slowly and sent the officer a cold, icy-blue stare. "Shut up and knock yourself out again!! We know what we're doing!"

"Wait… what?!?" the officer was alarmed. "You can't do that-"

"I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP!!!" Matt yelled.

T.K and Mimi watched in amazement as Matt gave the man a huge knock in the head. The poor officer fell to the ground in a heap.

"Good work, Matt," Izzy said, still not lifting his eyes from the screen.

Mimi eyed the man warily and went to stand next to Izzy. She watched the screen carefully, even though she hadn't the foggiest idea what the weird stuff on the screen meant.

All of a sudden, everyone else in the room perked up as Izzy shouted, "Yes! I've got it!!"

"Really?" Matt sounded excited. "Is it gonna work?"

"Eh… Eh?" Mimi, the ditz asked. "What have you got?"

Izzy kept typing away furiously. "Now, I just have to abort this flight... right now!!!"

Joe looked back again. Sora and Tai were still behind him. He glanced at his watch.

"DAMMIT!!" He shouted. The plane was leaving in a matter of seconds!!

He turned the corridor, raced down the path and accidentally crashed into a man.

"Sorry sir, sorry sir!" He bowed a couple of times apologetically then went on his way again.

Joe had crashed into that guy and something had fallen from his bag. Tai had run after him, saw it and picked it up. He could feel every curve of the object and he clutched it tight in his hot little hand.

Tai kept holding it tight as he had Sora followed Joe.

Joe could see the ramp up into the plane now. He ran towards it as fast as possible. Joe wasn't sure how, but it seemed to get further and further away, no matter how far he ran or how fast he moved his feet.

Just then, Joe heard someone shout out. He turned just for a split second. Tai and Sora had been caught!

Sora was crying out, "Joe!! Don't go!! Come back here!!! Don't leave Odaiba!!" She quickly turned around to see two airport officers in dark business suits, ready to arrest her.

Tai was right behind her and he was kicking and screaming (not so much the screaming) to avoid getting caught. He kicked and pushed away the guards that were trying to hold him down. He ran towards the ramp.

Tai all of a sudden felt everything go in slow-motion. Sure, his heart was beating about a million times faster than normal and he was in such a rush. Time!! He needed time!!

But as he watched the slow-motion thingy, he remembered the item he held in his hand.

Somewhere… though he wasn't sure where he heard counting. Someone was counting the time to take off.

"10!!!"

_Damn!! Ten seconds!! _

Tai gritted his teeth. Joe was just running over the first step.

"9!!"

Tai looked back to see guards advancing on him and his heart broke a little when he saw Sora with tears in her eyes fighting with one of the business-suited guards.

"8!!!"

Joe bounded as fast as his feet could carry him. Tai could feel the guards so close to him now. He lifted up the object. Aimed it for Joe, and as he was raising his arm, whacked an officer with his elbow and gave him a blood nose.

"7!!"

Joe tripped.

"6!!"

Izzy was just getting the abortion ready.

Matt licked his lips nervously and Mimi could feel her heart pounding out of her chest. Two more officers woke up, but T.K quickly knocked them out as best as he could.

"5!!!"

"You can do it, Izzy!!!" Mimi said encouragingly. Izzy felt a little more confident, though his fingers were now slipping off the keys because they were so sweaty.

"4!!"

"AAARRGHHH!!" T.K's scream rose higher as the officers woke up again.

"3!!"

The officers had rose up and T.K was unable to stop them anymore. They were furious and they headed over to Izzy, who was still sitting in the chair, sweating and typing away crazily. Mimi squealed and squeezed her eyes shut. _IZZY!! You have to do it!! _

"2!!"

Joe was nearing the end of the ramp. A flight attendant was killing herself trying to get him in the plane, seated and buckled up in a second's time.

Izzy pressed the key down as hard as he could just as the officers attacked from behind.

"1!!!"

"ABORT TAKE-OFF!!!" Izzy screamed.

"JOE!! STAY A DIGIDESTINED FOREVER!!!"

Tai's voice blared out loudest of all. He threw the tag with the crest of Responsibility at Joe as hard as he possibly could. Joe turned around just then to see it…

…land on his head.

Joe hurriedly pulled it off his head and gazed at it. His Crest of Reliability.

So much for reliable. He wasn't reliable at all. How could he be reliable when he didn't even call his friends, tell them about this whole thing in the first place, or try to stay great friends with them?

He looked up over at Tai. Tai was standing there with the most saddened look ever on his face. Two officers wrestled with him from behind but Tai didn't fight back anymore. He just let them slowly drag him away.

Joe frowned. Was he just gonna abandon his Digidestined Leader like this?!? Of course not!

"EEWWW!! Get your hands off me, you pervert!!" Mimi screamed in a high-pitched voice and slapped the officer's hands, as an officer dragged her away.

Matt was swearing and sending punches towards another guard who was also dragging him away.

Izzy's mouth hung open as he felt the little amount of life he had left disappeared.

"ABORTION CANCELLED!!!?!???!?!?" He screeched.

Joe quickly put the tag around his neck and started leaping back down the ramp. His whole brain was in turmoil and confusion. He was about to leave for Australia without his friends? He remembered complaining about them before, but now he could see clearly: Who was the one ditching them? Joe was.

He even felt tears in his eyes as he ran down the ramp.

_Yeah… maybe there were times you guys were horrible friends, but I didn't even try myself. For a friendship to work… both parties have to work hard together so that's why… I didn't try hard at all! I didn't take any responsibility! While the others went through hell to 'rescue' me, I just decided to run away from it. And break the promise. _

Joe screamed.

The plane took off just then. Well, it went speeding forward at top speed for its run-up. Joe felt like his blue hair that he was so proud of, his glasses, and his head would fall off.

Only his glasses did and they fell to the ground and broke.

"JOE!!" Tai yelled again. He had regained fighting spirit and was elbowing, biting and kicking the guards again. Then he took off at a really fast run, trying to catch up to the plane.

(Tai, are you really that dense? You can't catch up to a plane!!)

Joe looked at his brave and spontaneous friend. He didn't have his glasses, but he didn't need them. He just clutched his crest and jumped.

The plane flew off into the distance.

Joe and Tai ran up to each other.

They were both breathing really hard and so tired they just wanted to collapse right there. But even through their exhaustion, they felt tears in their eyes.

"Did you really… think that… I would break… our friendship… promise?" Joe gasped out.

Tai panted. But he gave Joe a cheerful grin. "Of course not!!"

"It's finally all over," Tai said as he and Joe slowly made their way back into the airport.

"Oh no it's not."

Tai let out a girly scream. An airport guard with the scariest frowning monobrow in the world was glaring at him. Horrendously.

Tai felt himself deflate. _Oh no… Oh no… _

Yuuko and Susumu Kamiya burnt a hole through Tai's face with their eyes.

They exploded: "WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING, TAICHI?!?!?"

Tai looked sheepish.

Tai, Sora, Matt, T.K, Izzy, Mimi and Joe sat out on the waiting couches in their airport together. It felt good to be back together again, all seven of them.

Tai grinned happily. He couldn't even remember how long it had been since the last time all of them had been gathered together like that. He felt like he could relax. He felt like he had done something really good and was so proud of himself.

But… everything comes with a price.

Yuuko yelled: "Tai, you are going to be grounded for the next two centuries!!"

**The end. Of the eighth episode that is. There's still a lot more to come. I might as well just spoil the whole thing by telling you guys the last two story arcs. But I'm not going to!! **

**Oh yeah, by the way, I don't think there even is an airport in Odaiba. And I sincerely hope that no fifteen-year-olds get up to that much trouble in it. And yeah, I've got absolutely nothing against moving to Australia. I love Aus!! After all, emichii is born and bred Australian!! Anyways, that's all for this week!! **

**Thanks so much for reading!! Please review!! **

**PS. My apologies to all airport guards, officers, staff who were bashed up, knocked out or got blood noses. **


	9. Episode 9!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. Too bad. Deal with it. **

**Hey WHASSUP?!?? Well, Joe's staying in Odaiba so what's next?? Well, there's still the old problem of Matt's girlfriend Sayo. And what are Mimi's feelings exactly? And does Izzy actually care for Mimi more than friendship?**

**Please read and review!! **

**Episode 9: Sincerity**

Tai groaned as he stumbled into class late.

Matt looked up and raised his eyebrow at his best friend. The teacher frowned at Tai but kept going on with the lesson. Tai sat in his seat and plunked his books down.

Tai narrowed his eyes at the pointless maths problems on the page. He twirled his pen around his fingers while humming to himself.

Man, these past few days had been so incredibly boring. Grounded for two centuries and still about a million hours to go. Tai felt his mouth turn upwards into a little grin. Fancy being stuck in maths and trying to figure out how many more hours to go.

Sora had seen Tai enter the classroom late and now she watched him from over her textbook. He seemed to notice this and he gave her a bewildered look.

Sora felt herself blushing and she hid behind the textbook again.

Tai didn't pay the teacher even a fraction of his attention. The teacher was explaining to the class the joy of Pythagoras' Theorem.

"Did you know," he was exclaiming, "that c²a²+b²?!?"

Tai ran a hand through his messy brown hair, _sheesh, _he sighed. He glanced at Matt who sat at his desk looking perfect and half-flirting with the glasses-wearing girl diagonally in front of him.

Tai smiled to himself. He was really happy. Even though he was grounded, he hadn't been so happy in a long time. He wondered why.

_Maybe… it's just because it's been so long since everything's been normal. Before, Matt and I were hardly talking to each other and the Digidestined weren't even good friends but now it seems like things are getting better. _

The bell rang and everyone got up and started packing up to leave. Tai grabbed his books and started heading over to Matt.

_Ya know, there's a lot of stuff we have to catch up on… _Tai thought as he pushed past the crowd.

Sora stood up from her desk. It seemed like the whole Digidestined was grounded for the rest of their lives. Because of this, she hadn't been able to talk to Tai for a whole two day, and that was a lot, considering they were meant to be best friends.

"Hey… Tai," she called, as she pushed her way through the crowd. He didn't hear her. He was walling forward purposefully, probably looking for someone else.

Sora's heart fell. She wondered why it hurt her all of a sudden. _I didn't want to see… him walking away from me like… that… _

"Tai… Tai!" she said louder.

"Matt!!" Tai shouted out to his best friend. Matt barely had time to turn around and greet Tai.

Tai got an incredibly agitated look on his face. _Crap. _

"Matt…" an incredibly sickeningly-sweet voice rang in Matt's ear. Matt turned his head in surprise. Sayo was whining. She wrapped her arms around Matt's left arm and pulled him away.

"Matt, it's been ages since I've seen you. Where have you been?" Sayo cried.

"…" Matt said nothing.

"C'mon, let's go! We have a lot to catch up on!" Sayo and Matt disappeared.

"Hey, Tai!!"

Tai turned as he heard the sweetest voice in the world beside him. Sora was panting for breath and flushed red but she smiled at him, the most beautiful smile in the world.

Tai felt his own face blush. "Oh. Whassup, Sora?"

"I… was…" Sora gasped, "looking for you…"

"Really? I'm sorry; I was busy looking for… him…" Tai felt a sense of betrayal go through him as he watched Matt and Sayo go around the corridor.

"…" Sora said nothing. She realised that Tai must be feeling sad again.

_Yeah… we've all gotten closer to Matt again but there's still Sayo. I can… understand where Tai's coming from… he feels that Sayo's stealing his best friend from him. And I know what that's like too. _

Sora shook her head. She took Tai's hand in hers. "Hey, Tai, don't look so bummed out, okay?"

Tai shivered slightly as he felt the warmth of Sora's hands. He stared down at their hands that were touching. His brown hair fell over his eyes.

"Sor… why do things have to change? It really… bites!" Tai said angrily.

Sora tilted her head. "What do you mean?" she asked gently.

Tai's eyes met hers for a moment. A blush flickered across his cheeks again. He pulled his hands away from Sora's. "I thought… that maybe we would all be friends again… and I was hopeful for a moment but… when I see Matt with Sayo, I think that maybe… he's really grown out of the Digidestined… and I get so confused… about why friendship doesn't come first…"

Tai turned away from his love Sora. His heart felt heavy. _And I wonder why does Matt get to have them both? He can have love… and friendship at the same time. I wonder if I'll ever be capable of that._

Tai snuck a glance at Sora. _But… I'm too afraid…_

Sora considered what Tai said. "…" _I guess you're right. _

_Actually, I've wondered about that too. Will it eventually happen one day? One day, will each one of us grow out of this and head out different ways? It seems so possible… But, Tai, I don't want to believe that will happen either… I don't ever want things to change… _

_Tai… I made a promise to you too… so I don't ever want to break it… but… if friendship is meant to come before love, why does my heart keep beating faster whenever I'm with you?_

"I don't believe the nerve of that girl!!!"

Mimi looked enraged. The Digidestined, minus Matt, were gathered around a tree in the school yard, eating their lunches.

Mimi said, totally into it, "I can't believe Matt either!! We spent so much time and took so much effort just to get Matt back from that evil woman and he just willingly goes back to her!!"

Izzy sweatdropped. "You make it sound like Matt committed the worst sin in the world."

"Well, he has!!" Mimi's high-pitched voice broke Izzy's eardrums. "We made it ever so clear that friendship comes before love!! But he had to go and choose his girl over us!! C'mon!! We all know that love comes second, right?"

She looked around at her friends. They were all looking away or at the ground, very sheepish and guilty-looking.

Mimi's shoulders dropped. She sank back down to her seat under the tree. "Yeah, I know it's… really strange, isn't it?"

Sora tore her eyes away from ground and turned to Mimi. "You know how we all feel, Mimi."

Mimi looked at the short boy standing next to her. "Well… Maybe… there was some other reason why I was so 'worried' about Matt before…"

Izzy looked very angry.

Mimi broke into a bright smile. "But I feel a lot better now! Matt is really just my very good friend! And maybe I would never have realised that, I wouldn't have felt any better if Izzy wasn't there with me."

"…Me?" Izzy almost choked on his sandwich.

Mimi said in an absentminded kinda way: "I'm really glad that you're my friend, Izzy… I mean… when I was all sad and brokenhearted over Matt… the only thing that made me feel better was just you being by my side. And Sora and all of you, of course."

The Digidestined listened intently but didn't look at her, still focusing on the grass or the ground or whatever they were looking at. Tai couldn't help feeling like he was betraying Mimi too.

_It's not my fault! I didn't want it to happen… I just couldn't do anything about… loving Sora… _

Mimi could see all of the Digidestined were fighting their inner battles. Well, so was she.

_I guess… if I was still all hung over Matt hurting me… I'd be really sad. But… I don't know why but whenever I was sad… I'd find Izzy with me and whenever he was there… the hurt I was feeling lessened a bit. So I'm very grateful…_

Mimi felt happy with her friends. It was peaceful there, but she thought back the feeling that things would change even more.

She felt the wind blow past her and her pink hair blew in the breeze. She looked up and saw the sky. Under her school shirt she felt the tag with the Crest of Sincerity flutter.

_It's really hard… to describe this odd feeling in me right now… But… if I've got the crest of Sincerity, I want to believe… _

_I want to be able to trust in everyone. I'm already so blessed with all my friends around me to encourage me… so I think… I can do it… I can stay here with my friends and I will try my best… _

_I know how Tai feels about Sora… and I understand all my friend's emotions now… I think… I can try harder to be there for them all… and Matt… I wonder if he'll ever be able to find happiness… _

Mimi smiled serenely. She lifted her head up towards the sky and closed her eyes.

_I want to be there for them. I know… there'll be tough times ahead but I believe we can make it through this!! I've found myself now… so when will… everyone else?_

Maybe right then… the Digidestined just sat there together silently, thinking. It was odd without Matt, and everything around them was becoming so confusing. How much harder could it get to keep Tai's promise?

**Well, it seems that Mimi's found herself now, as continuing from the story before Joe's almost-move. And Joe's also strengthened as a Digidestined. **

**I guess… everyone one of the Digidestined has to find new strength and belief in themselves. **

**Mimi and Joe have already faced a lot of trauma but they've emerged stronger from it. Next up is definitely Izzy and Matt- it's a wrap-up from the whole Matt/Mimi/Izzy story arc. Izzy doesn't seem to be having a very major role currently but soon he will. It's also not very certain what's happening to Matt. In fact I don't think I've written anything from Matt's POV yet. Will he end up with Sayo? Or is he not ready to be in love yet? **

**There's T.K of course. The youngest member of the Digidestined has his own troubles but he still has the crest of Hope and he's determined to carry it through. **

**Sora… well, she's still Sora. There'll be more to come obviously. **

**And Tai? It might seem unclear right now, but it might actually be true he's carrying the biggest burden of them all. And for the whole fanfic he'll have to go thru a lot more. But… I believe he can make it!! Whadda you think? **

**Please read and review!! **


	10. Episode 10!

**Welcome to episode 10!!! Hurraaaayyy!! **

**I don't own Digimon. **

**I'm getting so many reviews!! Thankyou so much for everyone's overwhelming support!! Well, as I said last chapter, this has suddenly changed into a friendship/romance fic about the Digidestined finding themselves and becoming stronger… whew…. I'm exhausted. Anyway, please read and review!! **

**Episode 10: ****Matt's confession!! **

Matt ignored his friend's glances and looks over at him. He knew he had the Crest of Friendship, so why did he feel like he was doing such a crappy job of it? Maybe it was because he was feeling guilty so he avoided them.

Matt thought as he went, _why couldn't they have both? Love and friendship. That was possible, right? Maybe it was just hard for Tai because Sora was also his best friend. So he made that promise and everyone just agreed with it. _

"Matt!!"

Matt almost groaned out loud. Instead he braced himself and turned and faced Sayo.

"Yeah? What is it?" he asked.

Sayo grabbed his hand. "C'mon, Matt!!

Matt turned his eyes skyward. When had this happened? Sayo, his self-proclaimed girlfriend. He had always pushed her away before, but now that he thought of it, she was always with him and always dragging him around. So why was he letting her do this? And now, he realized he really disliked being with her. Why didn't he do something about it?

Matt sighed. He pulled his hand away from Sayo's and started to walk away from her.

"Where are you going, Matt?" she asked, confused.

"Lunch is over, Sayo. We've gotta get back to class."

"Oh… yeah," Sayo said, disappointed.

Matt barely raised a hand to wave bye to his girlfriend and he swiftly walked away from her, gaining speed as he left. He could see the other Digidestined getting up from under the tree outside and heading inside the school.

"Hey, Matt!!" Tai was yelling as he ran towards Matt. "WHASSUP?!? Why weren't you eating lunch with us today?"

"…well…" Matt started. He hated to admit it, he didn't want to say that he wanted to break up with Sayo and go back to his friends after what had happened when Sora and Tai tried stalking him.

Tai pretended to understand. "Oh, Sayo, right?" He tried to laugh, "Heh, figures. I guess you must really like her a lot then. I'm happy for ya, Matt!"

Matt watched his poofy-haired friend walk on past him and to his locker. Matt walked on too. _Would Tai even try to understand? He doesn't know what it's like!! _

Then Matt remembered. Well, DUH, after the incident with him and Sayo and the stalking, he could imagine what kind of impression he left them.

Matt frowned as he sat down at his desk and barely glanced at the geography teacher.

_How… do I really feel… about her? _He drummed his fingers on the desk. _About Sayo… could I really love her? Because I don't really… care about her… that much right now… _

Tai was having soccer practice after school that day. He bounced the ball back and forth from one foot to the other. Tomo ran over.

"Hey, Tai! I'm glad to see ya all happy again."

"Thanks, Tomo." Tai grinned at his pal. "I guess I am happier today,"

He looked up from the soccer ball when he saw Matt walking past. He was yelling at someone, and then he ran up to whoever it was.

Tai shrugged. _It's probably just Sayo again. They're always together; you'd reckon they were joined at the hip or something. _

Tai looked over at Tomo. "Hey, Tomo, why are all the guys taking so long to get changed? Could you go and get them to hurry up?"

"Huh? Yeah sure!" Tomo ran inside.

Tai waited till Tomo had disappeared and then he picked up the soccer ball and ran after Matt. He didn't know why he did it; he just wanted to make sure Matt was okay. It didn't usually happen that Matt was still after school at this time. Didn't he and T.K have to walk home together?

Tai ran faster and then before he could stop anything, he crashed into a girl with pretty reddish-orange hair.

"S-Sora?" he cried awkwardly.

"Tai…?" she wondered.

Tai hurriedly got up. "Sorry about that, I just-"

"Don't you have soccer practice with your team?"

"Well, yeah, but I saw Matt running this way and I was wondering why he was still around so I followed him,"

Sora nodded and she stood up. "Yeah… me too…"

Tai blushed when he thought about just how close Sora's hand was to his. He took a chance and grabbed it, and then he started running in the direction Matt had gone.

"C'mon, let's go! We might not be really good spies, but I'm sure it's the right thing to do to see what Matt's up to,"

Sora tried her very very best to fight it, but she felt her heart speed up again.

_Why… is this happening? _She could feel Tai's hands warming hers up and she ran along with him.

Tai felt his heart pumping faster. _Why did I just do that? And why are we running and butting into Matt's life again? He told us he didn't want us to, but I just get the feeling he really needs a friend right now._

Matt could see Sayo in front of him. He just had to run… a little… faster…

He could feel all these different emotions in him. It was weird but now he realised it… what he felt towards Sayo…

_I'm sorry, Sayo, _he thought, _I can't love you because I don't know how to. And I don't even know you… so why did I let you be my so-called girlfriend? _He knew that he was way too attractive for his own good, as he could tell by the hoardes of girls that crowded around him every morning when he entered the school. Couldn't he be more than just looks? And fame- as he also was a rockstar…?

Would he ever be able to become someone like his best friend, Tai? He admired Tai because he was always cheerful and grinning and carefree, though Matt knew he had his own troubles. And Tai was deep too. He really cared about his friends and Matt knew of many girls that crushed on the soccer player.

But Tai wouldn't let anyone of them steal his heart. And he would never stop loving Sora. But he wouldn't try to tell Sora his feelings either. Instead, Tai treasured her friendship so much he had to hide his feelings as best as he could.

So why did Matt have to let one girl drag him away from his friends? Couldn't he be more like the courageous leader of the Digidestined?

"Sayo!!" he yelled out.

The girl turned her head, and seeing Matt, looked pleasantly surprised.

"Matt!!" Sayo turned around and went to hug him.

Matt put out his hands and grabbed Sayo's wrists. "No, Sayo."

Sayo looked at Matt, all helpless and tried to pull her hands away from him. "What's… with you, Matt?"

Matt gave her a look that pierced through her and his cold blue eyes made her shiver. "I'm sorry."

"Huh?"

She looked so confused; Matt almost felt sorry for her and backed away.

"Sayo, I… I'm sorry… I can't love you. I can't love anyone else either. It's because… I don't know how to… well, not right now, anyway. And I'm not ready to either. I'm not sure why I just realized it now, but it's true. I can't love you, Sayo, so I think it's best if you just give up on me."

Sayo was heartbroken. Her voice trembled. "What are you saying, Matt?"

"I'm… breaking up with you…"

Sayo cried, "You might not love me, Matt, but I love you!! And if you didn't, then why did you act like you did?"

"That's what I mean," Matt said seriously. "I didn't know why I let you drag me around for so long, but I figured it out. You… don't really… love me at all, do you? You're just as shallow as the other girls at school. You just love my looks and my being a musician. That's it, isn't it?"

"Noo… it's not!" Sayo said.

"Yeah, it is. It's the only part of me you could know because you didn't try to get to know me any better."

Sayo was shivering as she looked up at him. He could see the tears in her eyes.

"Why… are you… breaking my heart?!?" she cried.

Matt turned away from her. "I'm sorry, Sayo."

Sayo opened her mouth to say something, found nothing to say and then turn and ran away. The sound of her echoing footsteps rang loudly in Matt's ears.

Then, he wasn't sure why, but he felt great sadness as well. _Why? _He asked. Even Matt felt sentimental. What he wouldn't give for a friend right now…

Matt felt something in his pocket feel really heavy. He reached in and took it out.

The Crest of Friendship looked blurry to Matt's eyes because he felt a little tear in it. Maybe… now he'd be able to be a better friend to the others… but would they ever forgive him?

He clutched the tag tightly. Man… he'd been such a rotten friend. So much for the Crest of Friendship. Still… Tai's promise sounded good to him right now. Would he be able to keep it? And if friendship came first… would the Digidestined accept him again?

"Matt!! Matt!!"

Matt turned to see two familiar faces. Tai and Sora, his dear friends, arrived and stood in front of him.

"Are you okay, Matt?" Tai asked, worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm okay." Matt didn't look at his best friend, but all at once the once-heavy tag in his hands grew lighter and felt warm in his hands.

**Thanks for reading!! Please review!! **


	11. Episode 11!

**YO!!!! WHASSUP?!? The holidays are over!! Noooo!! Well, it's back to the horrible place we call school then… dammit!! Anyway, we're up to episode 11! WOW!! **

**Please read and review!! **

**By the way, I don't own Digimon or any of the characters. I only own the OCs, the plot and the story; and I won't hesitate to bash up anyone who tries to rip me off. Read and review!! **

_The Digidestined will always be friends, and nothing else will ever come in front of friendship, whether it is love, food, rivalry, competition, or secrets that have been hidden for a very long time. _

**Episode 11: Hiding love with friendship!!**

Izzy stumbled through the front doors of the school. His good buddy, Tai Kamiya, spotted him immediately and quickly ran over to say hi.

The clueless poofy-haired soccer captain was carrying a stack of books for his first class, and he carefully held them as he spoke: "Hey, what's up, Izzy?"

Izzy just groaned.

Tai frowned. "Man, you look like you've been run over by a train."

"I feel like I just went through a meat grinder," Izzy mumbled.

"Really?"

"Yeah…" Izzy felt his eyelids droop. "We've got end-of-semester exams coming up and I did an all-nighter just studying for one of them."

Tai gasped out loud. "ARGH!! Crap!! I totally forgot about them!" He shook his head in dismay. "I'm gonna get such bad grades…" he looked over at Izzy, "But I didn't think you'd need to study, genius."

"Everyone needs to study, Tai." Izzy said. "The only genius around here is Joe. I'm only good at computers and technology stuff, remember?"

"…yeah." Tai replied.

They parted ways to get to their respective classes. Izzy walked slowly, still feeling like he'd been through a meat grinder.

End-of-semester exams… They went for the whole last week of term. And then afterwards, HOLIDAYS!! Izzy drifted into his science class.

The pretty girl sitting at the side brightened considerably. She called out, "Hey, Izzy, you're here!!"

Izzy smiled weakly. "Hi, Mimi."

"Wow, Izzy, you look like you pulled an all-nighter." Mimi frowned. "You all right?"

"Barely." Izzy said. "And now we've got a test."

"A test?!? A test!!" Mimi exclaimed. "We have a test?!? I didn't know that!!"

Tai grinned at his best friend Matt, who was casually walking next to him, ignoring the crowd of the girls in the background squealing at him.

"Glad to see ya back with us," Tai said.

"Yeah." Matt said. He lifted up his Crest of Friendship and showed it to Tai. He smiled. "I've got this, don't I?"

Tai nodded. He looked into the distance for a while and said thoughtfully, "But I gotta say, for a while there I almost thought that you had grown out of the Digidestined. And I was really worried for a moment."

"Well… I guess… maybe I got impatient. Remember that promise? Well… I can't help but feel that maybe every one of us are trying to cheat it. Maybe we just can't help it. We kept letting _love_ butt into our friendships. And now that I think about it, it was probably my fault that Mimi got so emotional and uncontrollable. And it was my fault that I put you guys through so much." Matt smiled a small smile, "You're right, Tai. We weren't ever supposed to let any of this stuff happen. Friendship before Love, right? It's my fault Mimi got so emotional."

Tai just nodded solemnly.

Matt said, "Thanks for accepting me back. I still feel like I did something wrong and I'm afraid that the others might not be able to forgive me."

"Of course they'll forgive you!!" Tai interrupted. "Why wouldn't they?!?"

"…because of Joe's almost moving away, I managed to maybe regain a little of their trust. But… I still feel uncomfortable, because… remember when you and Sora were chasing after me? Sora- she told me that Mimi loves me. And at that very second, I felt this weirdest feeling. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it just throws a lot of things in a mess."

Tai blinked. He didn't understand anything Matt was saying.

Matt chuckled. "Still as clueless as ever, I see. Anyway, I'm sure that Mimi was hurt that I went out with Sayo. And I know that she was even more upset when I ignored you guys. But just like your promise, Tai, maybe she has to understand that even though we're friends, I couldn't feel the same way about her."

Tai nodded enthusiastically.

Matt gave a big sigh. "Besides, she's not the only one who feels something for another Digidestined that's beyond friendship."

"Eh?"

Matt looked at Tai with his all-seeing icy blue eyes. "Izzy." he said. "Koushiro loves her, doesn't he?"

"Wh…WHAT?!?" Tai exclaimed. Sure, he may have been the Digidestined leader but it didn't change the fact he was clueless and dense. He was Tai! He couldn't help himself if he didn't notice startling obvious facts!

"I wonder how long this friendship will last," Matt said, as he put the tag back in his pocket.

"Huh? Whaddaya mean?" Tai asked, alarmed.

"Izzy's just trying to keep your promise, Tai. But it's a lot harder than you think."

"…" Tai said nothing.

"You know what I mean." Matt looked at his watch when he realized lunch break was over. He started turning away, catching the confused look in Tai's eye.

Matt smiled a small knowing smile, "How much longer can you hide your love for Sora with your friendship?"

"YEEEAAAHHH!! WE'RE FINISHED!!" Mimi cheered.

She and Sora ran out of their last class, talking excitedly.

"The test finally finished!!" Sora sighed with relief. "Too bad we still have the exams and tests for the rest of the week!!"

"Yeah…" Mimi said, shoulders dropping with disappointment.

Sora just smiled at the pink-haired girl walking beside her. It was so nice to have her back, she thought, _I'm so glad she's not all sad because of Matt anymore. _

"Oh yeah!" Sora said, "It's the holidays next week!"

Mimi looked delighted. She clapped her hands together. "Oh!! That's right!! We've all gotta do something fun for the holidays!! Like, with everyone! All of us Digidestined!"

"That'd be awesome!" Sora grinned brightly.

Izzy could hardly tear his eyes away from the happy pink-haired girl chatting away happily with her best friend. He shook his head as he headed over to his locker to put away his books. He was so happy to see her smiling, so carefree again. Izzy opened his locker door and stared at the tag lying on the shelf inside the locker.

The Crest of Knowledge glinted a little the sunlight that beamed through the windows and Izzy felt a little depressed. He put his books away and closed the locker door, a little too hard.

He snuck another glance at Mimi, who was leaving the school building with Sora, and they were busy planning some exciting trip for everyone. He couldn't help it.

Before Izzy had had some tiny suspicion that this was happening, or was about to happen and now it did. It wasn't his fault.

Every single time he saw her.

Every single time when she was just standing there. When she was just smiling in her ditzy way, when she looked confused, or when she was exhausted from shopping in every single shop in every single level of the biggest mall in Odaiba…

Every single time he saw her…

He felt his heart ache a little more.

And then that last time when Mimi was faced with the horrible truth that Matt was dating some girl, when she was heartbroken and those tears kept falling from her eyes. When she gave him that small smile on her tear streaked face, he couldn't kid himself anymore.

Izzy scowled in annoyance.

Crap. Dammit. He was so in love with her.

**Thankyou for reading episode 11 of FFFD!! Please read and review!! **


	12. Episode 12!

**Hi!! WOW!! It's the twelfth chapter already?!? Whoa… Yeah, the story's evolved a lot with different character loops etc. There was the whole Matt/Mimi/Izzy saga that still seems to be continuing. Izzy's feeling's run a lot deeper than he's aware, and it seems Matt's story isn't quite complete yet. I don't particularly reckon episode 10 was enough to show what happened to Matt. So… the Izzy and Matt loop continues… and yeah… so on with the swirling strings and loops!! Read and review!! **

**Episode 12: Broken Promises ahead!! **

Matt ignored the flirtatious brunette sitting across from him. Instead, he twirled his blue pen over and over in his hand and slumped down lower in his seat.

Seriously… End-of-Semester tests and exams were enough to kill anyone. They had already had a whole semester of assignments and homework and it was almost the holidays!! Couldn't they just settle down a little and have a little break?!? But nooo, they had to make sure everyone had learnt something and had to test them on all the little subjects so they could write stuff about their students in their report cards.

Matt gave a little sigh and struggled to concentrate on the problems on the paper. But even so… his mind drifted away. Man, it was the end of semester! The second term was up!! Half the year had gone!! Yet he felt like nothing had happened. What happened to the first half of Year 9?!? He cried in his mind.

Matt randomly scribbled down an answer. Which was probably wrong, but he wrote it down anyway. Heck, who could concentrate in any test with all the stuff that had gone on recently?

Matt smiled secretively to himself. Yeah, he had missed his friends. And he could take full responsibility for ditching them. But Tai had gladly accepted him back in, because Tai had such a big heart. When you had a best friend like that, you just couldn't help feeling extra horrible for ditching him for your girlfriend.

Matt was cheered up again. He recalled how it'd been a while since he and the Digidestined had hung out together. Maybe they could do something together on the holidays? Matt got excited and he started writing away on the exam paper. The holidays. He couldn't wait.

Izzy was troubled. He was sitting at the back of the room, sitting for an exam. It was the second day of the test week. Izzy wasn't paying attention. There was just so much on his mind and so much to think about. He kept pondering about _her. _

Ever since he had finally stopped fighting with himself and come to accept the fact he was in love with Mimi, she'd taken up such a big portion of his mind.

What… would he do about it? There was still that promise that he'd made to Tai.

_Would Tai even understand? _Izzy thought glumly. _He'd made up that promise and even though we all agreed to it, I'm sure none of us were really sure what it meant. _Izzy fiddled with the black pen in his hands. Man, who cared about equations right now? All he could think about was Mimi and her beautiful smile. But even though she was residing in his thoughts, behind her loomed a dark shadow. That promise.

Izzy sighed in utter irritation. _Tai would never understand. He just doesn't know what it's like. He wouldn't know what it's like having to hide your love for someone with friendship. _

He sat up straighter and chuckled. He laughed forcibly under-his-breath.

_Besides, it's not like Mimi's ever gonna like me. _

"TAAIII!!"

Tai turned at the sound of his name. "Huh?"

He was greeted with an exhausted Sora with a red flushed face, yet she remained an angel before him. She breathed down hard a couple more times, and then she looked up and smiled at him. "Tai!! I finally caught up to you!"

Tai fought back the urge to let his face blush bright red. "Yeah?" he said. "How was your day, Sora?"

Sora made a face. "The tests sucked."

"Uh huh."

Suddenly Sora clapped her hands together and her face brightened. "Oh yeah!! Yesterday, Mimi and I had this idea that the Digidestined should all do something together these holidays!! You know how we haven't been together in such a long time, Tai. Anyway, so Mimi said that we should all go to the beach for the holidays together!! She says she's gonna arrange all the other stuff like where we should meet, when and where we'll stay and all that!!"

Tai felt something weird surge through his brain. The holidays. Hol-i-days. What in his brain wasn't functioning properly?

Did he have something on during the holidays? He couldn't remember. What was it? He just had this feeling that something important was meant to happen, but what?

Tai realized that Sora was waiting for some kind of response. "Oh… uh… yeah, that's right. The holidays go for two weeks. Which week is the trip planned for?"

Sora beamed. "It'll probably be the first week. Everyone should be free for the first week. So are you going?"

Tai couldn't fight off that weird feeling in his stomach. So he thought and thought and thought but he still couldn't remember. What did he have scheduled for that day?!? He wondered.

A wide smile spread over Tai's face. "Yeah, I'll be there!" He told Sora.

Sora grinned and cried, "Yeah, that's great!! I'm so glad you're coming, Tai!! It'll be awesome I know it!!"

Tomo suddenly appeared from a hallway. "Hey!! Tai!! Soccer training starts in ten minutes, Captain!!" He yelled.

Tai yelled back, "Yeah, coming!!"

Sora said, "I'm sorry, I held you up!" She quickly turned and started leaving. "I'll see ya tomorrow, Tai!!"

Tai was just watching her disappear around the corner when the sports bag with all his soccer gear in it that was hanging across his shoulders felt a lot heavier. His eyes widened.

The colour in his face drained.

_Dammit. That's what it was… _

"Hey, Captain?!?" Tomo wondered as he and the goalie came up to him.

"Oh hey," Tai said, still frozen shock still.

Tomo nodded knowingly. "You must be thinking about the Soccer Tournament next week! It's going to be huge!! We really can't miss it and none of us can even think about skipping out on it!! So, Tai, you better hurry and get changed; we're gonna need a lot of training before we're ready for the tournament!!"

**That's all for the 12****th**** episode. It's pretty short isn't it? Well, sorry!! I've been extremely busy this week!! But it's okay, next week's chapter will be even better!! More stuff before the beach trip and Tai's soccer tournament, and we'll begin stuff on T.K too!! Please read and review!! Thankyou!! **


	13. Episode 13!

**Welcome to episode 13, all my fans and readers!! Thanks for all your awesome reviews!! They're really encouraging me to do my best!! Thanks!! **

**Well… here we are… this is the chapter before the Digidestined head out on their amazing adventure to their holiday trip!! And say hello to T.K, our protagonist, taking on his own character loop!! Hope you all enjoy!! Please review!! **

**Episode 13: T.K and the Big Digidestined Holiday Trip **

T.K gave a great big sigh of relief as he headed home on Thursday afternoon. Yeah!! School was over for another day!! Awesome!!

He shifted the weight of his school bag from one shoulder to the other as he walked home. T.K was in a good mood. Well… last week of term. Last week of Term 2. The first half of the year was just about over. And the next day would be the very last day. It wasn't just that, but lately, he'd been feeling a lot better.

After all, Matt was back!!

T.K hadn't really liked Sayo at all. The girl who called herself Matt's girlfriend always seemed to get on his nerves. And though T.K knew that Matt wasn't his, he still had felt that Sayo was taking Matt away from him and his friends. And Matt had acted cold and a little grumpy when he was dating Sayo. Sure, Matt's outer exterior had always generated that kind of impression, but being Matt's little brother, T.K knew him better than that.

T.K was very cheery as he stepped into the house. He was heading inside when he saw Matt walking towards him and with him was Tai, with a soccer gear bag slung across a shoulder. They were laughing like idiots, because obviously Tai had used his denseness to crack another random joke. And they really looked like the best of friends.

Yep, Matt was back and more himself than ever.

"'kay then, Tai, see you tomorrow!!" Matt said cheerfully.

"Yep! Later!!" Tai waved a hand in the air as he headed off in a different direction.

Matt entered the house after T.K. He smiled. "What's up, little bro?!?"

"What? Nothing!" T.K said.

Matt narrowed his eyes. "What's with all that cheerfulness emitting from you?!? And why do you have such a bright goofy grin on your face anyway?!?"

"I told you!! It's nothing!!"

"T.K!!"

Tai ran a hand through his dark brown hair.

Man, what was he gonna do? Next week, he and the other Digidestined would be heading off on a holiday trip and he had completely forgotten the super-special-important soccer tournament he and his team had.

Tai walked into his apartment and flung his bag onto the couch. He turned his eyes upward and glared at the ceiling in deep thought.

_Well… _he thought, as he wandered into his room. _Well… _He studied the calendar on the wall. The soccer tournament started on the Friday next week, and the Digidestined were heading back to Odaiba the very next day. He hated having to do it, but maybe he could still go on the trip, and come back in time for his soccer match. That was okay, right? He'd still get to spend six days with Sora and his best friends. He'd just have to get back earlier and quickly play a soccer match.

Tai frowned. Yup, if that was what he was gonna do, he'd be incredibly exhausted by Friday. Still, he couldn't let his friends or his team down. Tai shook his head in disappointment.

_I'll just have to do that, then… I'm sorry, Sora. I'm sorry, you guys… but I'm sure you'll understand. _

Sora and Mimi were incredibly excited. Their idea had become an incredibly well-thought-out and planned trip.

Mimi's pink hair bounced playfully over her shoulders as she and Sora chatted excitedly between their sixth and seventh period classes.

Mimi's voice was high-pitched and in great excitement, "Oh I just can't wait!! It all starts tomorrow!! Tomorrow's Saturday and the beginning of the holidays so we'll all be going to the beach together!! Ohmigosh!! I can't wait!! I'm all packed and ready to go!!"

Sora felt a sweat drop run down her forehead. "Don't be so loud, Mimi," she pleaded.

Mimi giggled. "Sorry," she said, in a much quieter tone. "But I just can't wait!! It's so close!! Tomorrow morning!!"

Sora smiled. "Yeah. So then, everybody's coming. All seven of us?"

"Yep!! Oh wait," Mimi frowned. "Yeah, T.K, I'm not sure yet. I was meant to tell him to come but I never got the chance. Did you tell him?"

"No, I haven't," Sora said. Her face fell. "I hope he's not feeling hurt. I hope he doesn't think we forgot about him or something."

"Yeah." Mimi frowned deeply. Just then the bell rang and she and Sora had to scatter to get to their classes.

T.K had heard about the trip before. He was feeling a little miserable. After all, all Matt and the others had been talking about recently was the beach trip. T.K slouched down a little lower in his seat and tried to think English.

Why was English so hard anyway? Why was it so different from Japanese?

And seriously, what kinda letter was j anyway? Why would the English guys have a weird j shape and put a dot on top of it??

T.K lowered his eyes, and his thoughts drifted away from the English alphabet.

_Matt and the others are going to the beach tomorrow until next Saturday, _T.K thought, dejected. _I guess it's a good thing all the Digidestined are together again, and I hope they'll all have an awesome time… but… aren't I part of the Digidestined too? _

_Well… I guess it kinda makes sense… We're all the original Digidestined, but I am still the youngest. They're all older and their ages are closer together. It just makes sense they'd all want to go on a trip together without me, so I'll just live with it. _

T.K forced a smile. _But I can't help feeling… a little left out…_

He played with the lead in his pacer. He took the lead out. He put it back in. He closed the lid. He shook the pacer up and down to make a shaking sound.

The English teacher's voice droned on and on. What nonsense was that old coot babbling anyway? T.K frowned in concentration. _My starved kittens are drowning in puddles of… green tea? _

T.K gave up with a sigh. He threw down the pacer in annoyance.

When the final school bell rang, all the students cheered. They hurriedly grabbed their bags and possessions and ran out of the dreaded building as fast as they could go.

T.K was outside the school with Matt and he was looking forward to walking home with him. Matt was still his role model. T.K admired Matt a lot, because he was the reliable and caring older brother. So it was no wonder he had felt left out before.

_I hope he doesn't think I'm an annoying younger sibling, _T.K thought, thinking back to all his classmates' constant complaining of their little brothers and sisters. T.K put on a determined face. _Matt's my big brother, so I wanna be a really good younger brother to him. So if he wants to go on the trip with the others without me, that's okay. _

"T.K?" Matt's voice was questioning. "What are you doing standing there, looking all determined at the wall? Come on, let's go home,"

T.K snapped to attention. "Oh, uh, yeah!! Right!"

"MATT!! T.K!!"

The two brothers looked up at the mention of their names. Mimi and Sora, the enthusiastic holiday planners ran up to them.

Mimi was crying out, "Where are you two running off to? We still have lots to discuss!"

"Discuss?" Matt repeated.

"Discuss?" repeated T.K.

Mimi had a ferocious look in her eyes. "Yes! That's right!!" she said loudly. "So tomorrow we all gotta get to the train station at exactly eight o'clock!!"

"Um, okay," said Matt, looking bewildered.

"Good!" said Mimi, "We'll see you and the others there then!!"

T.K stared at his feet. Mimi sounded so excited and he had known that Matt had been waiting for the next day for a whole long week.

He spoke up, with a nervous smile, "Um… I hope you guys all have a lot of fun at the beach…"

The other three stared at him.

T.K stared back at them. "Huh? What… did I say… wrong?"

Sora gave him a bright smile. And even though T.K knew that he could never have feelings for Sora like Tai did, he still felt his heart beat faster and he felt his face grow extra hot.

The pretty orange-haired girl beamed. "Everything, you dolt!!" she cried in a friendly way.

T.K looked puzzled.

Sora rolled her eyes. "T.K, you're coming too!!"

T.K brightened. "What, really?!?"

Matt gave a little half sigh-grunt. "Dammit, T.K, obviously!! You think I'd go off with the others and leave you behind?!?"

T.K could almost feel tears in his eyes. He was grinning so damn hard his cheeks were about to fall apart.

Mimi smiled. "It wouldn't be as fun without ya, T.K! What kind of friends would we be to leave a fellow Digidestined behind?!?"

So, the Digidestined, wherever they were, all looked forward to the next day when they would all be able to enjoy a week of the holidays together.

Izzy looked into the distance out his bedroom window. Tomorrow, he'd be embarking on another journey with his six companions. And sometime in the coming week, he'd have to find out some way to tell the girl he loved his feelings.

Joe was nervous as he packed his bags. _Out of all the places she could've chosen, Mimi had to choose the beach!! It's so dangerous!! What if we got sunburnt? Or we drowned? Or we-_

Matt rolled his eyes. _Dammit, T.K, you're such a child. _But he grinned hard. He was back with his best friend and his kid brother and man; he was so ready for an adventure and a fun holiday with everyone.

Mimi still felt her heart beat a little faster as she looked at Matt, but it was different now. The feelings she had for him in the past had subsided a lot now, and she was glad for that. After all, what would happen on their special holiday trip if that old enemy love kept stabbing everyone in the back?

She giggled and smiled brightly. Her eyes shone bright. Oh yeah, the holiday was gonna be awesome!!

Sora was looking forward to tomorrow. Unlike Mimi, she hadn't gone and arranged every single outfit for every single day of the trip; but she was ready to enjoy herself more that ever. And hopefully, if she was lucky, the feelings she had for _him _wouldn't ruin the Digidestined trip.

Tai sighed. The Soccer tournament and the holiday. They were both so important. But he'd told Sora- promised her and the other Digidestined that he'd be there and so he would.

T.K's mouth stretched so wide he could hardly talk. He pumped his fist in the air and called out loud and excited:

"THE DIGIDESTINEDS' HOLIDAY'S GONNA BE AWESOME!!"

**Thanks for reading!! Please, please review!! **


	14. Episode 14!

**Hello!! Yo, it's emichii here!! And I'm sick… groan… yeah I'm staying home from school with a bad cold and I'm typing my fanfic! YAY!!! And I'm listening to my favourite emo music and anime soundtracks on my new super-special-awesome CD!! Yaayyy!! It's the fruits basket closing theme right now, so maybe I'll go work on the other fic… hmm… nah, screw that!! **

**Well, thanks for all your reviews!! This fic is quite popular!! Thanks so much for reading and reviewing, everyone!! **

**Oh look it's the .hack song… anyway sorry for babbling on!! Here's the fourteenth chapter!! Please read and review!! **

**Episode 14: Feelings in chaos**

Sunlight shone down from the pale blue sky that had a few white clouds floating serenely across it, like sailboats against the wind.

Izzy narrowed his eyes as he gazed up against the sunlight and watched the sky. He was the first one at the train station with his bags packed. It was a weird feeling, to be standing there alone, looking up into the sky. It reminded him of that time when the seven of them watched to sky short-circuiting just before they were sent to the Digital World. And it was weird that they were about to go on another journey together, the seven of them, just like before.

Izzy gave a huge sigh. _Mimi… _crap, the girl was always in his mind. He couldn't even think without her popping up. He really loved her, but he was unsure of what to do about it. But now that all the Digidestined were going on a holiday together, he wasn't sure how, but he was gonna tell her how he felt. It was weird that he'd think that.

Because Tai… Tai- his close friend and the Digidestined leader made them all promise. Not to let love get between friendship, right? But Love was love. You couldn't exactly do anything about it.

If Izzy did confess to Mimi… well, that threw things in a mess… The promise, keeping friendship between them, hurt feelings, rejection, maybe- the even possible love… So many things could happen. So many feelings could be hurt and it would be disastrous.

Izzy sat by himself on a bench at the checkpoint. He didn't want to think about it anymore.

"Hey Izzy!!"

Izzy looked up. Tai was standing nearby with his good ol' sports bag slung over one shoulder as well as a stuffed backpack. He was grinning and he had his wonderfully tousled brown hair sticking out in all directions.

"Oh, hey Tai."

Tai looked at his watch. "Heck, I almost thought I was gonna be late. Where are the others? It's almost eight!!"

"HEY TAI!! IZZY!!"

Matt arrived with all his gear. He lifted up a hand in a casual wave, managing to look incredibly cool. A couple of steps behind was T.K who looked so excited.

T.K spoke up, "We're here!! And so's Joe!!"

Joe was juggling all his possessions and belongings as he rushed out to meet the others. He was sweating and he was crying out, "Argh!! I'm gonna be late! I'm gonna be late!! It's already ten minutes past eight!!"

He looked up and saw Izzy, Tai, Matt and T.K looking at him and sitting/standing around not looking hassled at all.

Running faster, he hurried over to the other guys. "Phew, I'm glad I'm not late!"

Matt rolled his eyes. "Speaking of late, where are the girls? Leave it to them to be late."

Tai grunted. "Yeah, I thought they were meant to be efficient and reliable and all that crap. Man, I'm never gonna understand them. What goes through their heads anyway?"

The Digidestined guys strained their heads and thought but none of them knew much about the female species.

Just then, Mimi's high-pitched squeal erupted and they all shook, clutching their ears. The pink-haired enthusiast bounded up to them. She wasn't holding many bags, just one in her hand and she was wearing a wide-brimmed sun hat.

"Hi everyone!!" She cried.

Tai blinked. "For a girl, you sure travel light," he commented.

Mimi waved a hand. "Oh no," she laughed. "I just got Sora to help me carry them!! Oh ho ho hee hee!!"

Sora appeared, carrying heaps and heaps of stuff. "Mimi, why'd you have to bring so much??" Her voice was muffled from beneath so much. "You don't need to bring that much for one week at the beach!"

Mimi frowned. "What are you talking about?? Of course you do!! You need lots and lots and lots of stuff for the beach!! I thought you grew out of your tomboy ways, but it looks like you're still the same!!!"

"Hah?? What?!?" Sora looked so bewildered.

Tai watched everyone get all confused as they went on with their talking and stuff as they waited for the train to arrive. He knew that maybe he had troubles ahead, what with all his bad timing and everything. Tai didn't know what would happen about his feelings with Sora. He didn't know what to do with his big promise and all that.

But as he stood there, watching his friends laugh and joke around, a special warm feeling spread inside of him and he felt happy.

Yep, this trip was gonna be awesome!!

And Tai was sure that promise he had made was right.

When the train came, the Digidestined all got on and they had to struggle to get Mimi and her ten tonnes of luggage inside. Then once the train finally started, they were truly on their way to a Digidestined journey!!

"WOW!! What a huge beach house!!" Sora was amazed. She turned to Tai who was standing beside her. She smiled brightly. "Isn't it, Tai? It's so cool!!"

Tai stared at her, out cold.

Sora was freaked out. She grabbed Tai's sleeve and shook him hard. "Tai?? Tai?!? What's wrong with you?!?"

Tai's face was incredibly red and heated. Sora had her hands on his shoulders now and she was still shaking the Digidestined leader hard.

"Aarrghh!! What's wrong, Tai?!? What'd I say?!?"

Tai just watched Sora, feeling his cheeks burn more and more. His heart thumped crazily. _Dammit, Sora, why do you have to be so… cute… and adorable…? I can't help… loving you!! _

"What's up?" Mimi wondered.

Sora looked horrified. "Tai's not moving!! Is he dying?!?"

"Huh?" Mimi peered at poor Tai, who was slowly trying to get out of his daze.

"Look, his head is all hot! Is Tai getting sick?!?" Sora cried.

_Oh man, Sora, you still don't know? _Mimi shook her head slowly. She smiled in a kind way. Using one hand to push some of her pink hair behind one ear, she carefully turned and started to head inside.

"Don't worry about it, Sora," she said, "it's nothing," Mimi quickly went and caught up to the others who were already going inside the house and settling in, investigating the huge place.

Sora frowned. "Uh… oooookkayyy…" She snuck another look at Tai.

Tai groaned as he shook his head to fully wake himself up. That had been… weird… he'd loved Sora for quite some time now, but that hadn't exactly happened before.

Sora was a little annoyed. "TAI!!" She half-yelled. "What was with that?!? What the heck was that? Why'd you space out?"

"Sorry..."

Sora was still unhappy. "Sorry? Is that all you can say? Do you know how much that… worried me…?" She stared at her feet and she fought back the impulsive burning of her cheeks.

She looked back at the confused brown-haired boy and her heart thumped again. Sora sighed and turned away from him slowly, her red hair floating from the sudden movement.

"…c'mon… let's go inside, Tai…"

Tai remembered at that exact moment all those times she had turned away from him before. He had regretted it every time. Whenever she turned away… whenever she turned her back on him, he felt hurt.

"Sora…" he said.

She turned back. "Hm? Yeah, Tai?"

Tai lowered his gaze from Sora's. "I, uh…"

Sora's face went the slightest-slightest pale pink and she smiled again. She held out her hand to Tai. "Hurry up, let's go!!"

They were both quiet and speechless as Tai stared at her outstretched hand. He felt his own face go pink. He reached out and took her hand. It was warm and it fit so neatly in his.

As they walked to the house, Tai just kept looking at the ground. It was so weird and foreign to be holding Sora's hand; after all he hadn't done that since they played on the same soccer team together, but he couldn't help feeling as though their hands fit together so well.

Tai's face was warm.

_It's strange… but Sora's hand just makes me want to kiss it. _

**Speaking of strange, that was a strange way to end a chapter. In case, you haven't realized, I dunno why, I just always need a good-sounding sentence to end my chapters. I'm not sure if that was what I meant, but it'll have to do. I'm not thinking too well today… dammit… **

**Okay then!! Thanks for reading!! Please review!! Especially if there are any ideas for the Digidestined holiday trip, I'd love to hear them!! After all… it's a whole week long!! AARRGHHH!!! **

**(Please keep in mind what this fanfic is rated. Actually, I think I forgot. Oops.) Anyway, there are specifications to what I'll actually write and put in though. If you've been following any of my other fic, you'll see that I do actually get requests for make-out scenes in my fic, but it's NOT GONNA HAPPEN. **

'**kay then, See you all next time!! Crap, I hope I'll be better by then… **


	15. Episode 15!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon and I know it! So do you!! **

**Hey everyone!! Thanks for all your reviews!! They were all awesome!! Well, here's chapter 15!! And hi to that reader who's lookin' forward to my 'crazy' ideas!! **

…**they're not that crazy, are they?!? **

**Chapter 15: Don't tell anyone!!! **

It was a nice refreshing afternoon at the beach house where the Digidestined where enjoying their cool awesome holiday retreat together. They had all taken the early train to the beach and they had arrived at the beach house in one piece.

Matt and Tai were sharing a room and they had already unpacked everything. Joe, Izzy and T.K were in another room and Sora and Mimi were in the last one (like, DUH!!)

Tai stood at the open window of the room and poked his head outside. He could feel the fresh air blow past his face and ruffle his already messy brown hair. Man, his thoughts were flying all over the place right now. Wasn't sure what to think about, where to look, where to turn. But he had to stop worrying. And he had to stop running away from everything.

What that meant was running away from Sora… and the truth.

Matt put down the bag that he'd been carrying onto his bed and looked over at Tai. He gave him an understanding and slightly sympathetic look that he had mastered perfectly during the long train ride.

Running a hand casually through his hair, he said, "Hey, what's up, Tai?"

Tai didn't look away from the window. "…I don't know…"

Matt tilted his head a little, raising an eyebrow. "Okay then. So are you just gonna stand there at the window for the rest of the day or go and hit the surf or something, Mr Athlete?"

Just then, as if on cue, Mimi pushed open the door to their room. She beamed. "TAI!! MATT!! Let's go to the beach right now!! We have heaps of time!! Yeah!! C'mon, let's go!!"

From behind her, Sora emerged and grabbed the over-enthusiastic girl's arm. "Mimi! You can't just barge into their room like that! What if they were getting changed or something?!?"

Mimi was dragged out of the room by Sora. Matt just stood there, looking confused with a sweat drop on his head. He turned back to Tai. "Well, you goin' or not?"

"Tai! That was unfair!" Mimi whined as she waded through the cold water to get to Tai.

Tai looked shocked, "What are you talking about?"

Sora wandered over, followed by Matt and T.K.

Mimi frowned, "Well, I said I'd race you to the water, but you ran off before I finished my sentence!"

"But you said it was a race, so I started running!" Tai retorted.

"But it was unfair!" Mimi cried.

Sora laughed, "Hey, you guys, get over it!"

Mimi nodded, "Yeah, you're right."

Sora turned to Tai and flashed him a beautiful bright smile that sent a shock up his spine.

"Well, Tai, wanna build a sandcastle?" She asked.

"Yay!! Yippee!!" T.K cheered, "Let's build a sandcastle!!"

"Uh… 'kay," Tai said, looking at the sand beneath his feet. He could feel his face turning bright pink again and he didn't want anyone to see- especially Matt.

Matt noticed Tai's strange behaviour. He frowned, but didn't say anything. Tai, Sora and T.K wandered off to find some nice area where they could build their sandcastle. Mimi was just standing there alone, looking up at the sky and being lost in her thoughts.

"Mimi? MIMI??" Matt had to speak loudly to get the spaced-out girl's attention. "What are you all spaced-out for?"

"Um… I was just wondering where Joe and Izzy were!" Mimi cried. "Like Izzy… is he even gonna get out here…?"

Tai plopped down on the sand next to Sora. Sora was cheerfully piling up a big mountain of sand in front of her. T.K was waving buckets and spades and he ran down to get some water.

Tai felt the cool breeze float through his hair. It was a refreshing feeling and Sora was right by his side. In fact, she was so close to him right now… Tai shook his head to get rid of all his delusional thoughts.

"Aren't you glad all us Digidestined came to this holiday together? It's so cool that we're all together again. Like, didn't you reckon that we all seemed to be drifting apart before, heading off in our separate lives?" Sora spoke.

"Huh." Tai grunted.

Sora carefully filled up a bucket with sand and turned it over. "And it was really weird… when everyone got all emotional because… they were… _in love _or something."

"Yeah," Tai fiddled around with the sand at his feet.

Sora wasn't looking at Tai either. "And Matt was acting all strange for a while. I guess it was that girlfriend of his, huh?"

Tai nodded absently.

Sora kept looking absorbed in her sandcastle building, but in actual fact she was really saying all her thoughts as truthfully as she could. "It's so weird… that the promise we all made so long ago seems to come into play all the time. I remember when we all promised it, we all thought it wasn't gonna happen, and it was just another random thing you felt like saying… but now, it's as though the promise really matters. And it's like a challenge to keep it up. And looking at all of the mess that's it's caused; I'm not sure what to think about it. It's as though one way or another, love is gonna tear everyone apart."

_Yeah, like you'd know… _Tai thought. _You… wouldn't get it, would you? 'Cause you would never feel the same way I do… _

They just sat there silently without saying anything. Just then, T.K bounded up to them with buckets of water. The water was sloshing at all over the place, leaving soggy patches of sand.

"Hey!" T.K may have been younger than the rest of them, but he was just as sensitive and wise about all that stuff that had been going on between the Digidestined. "Why are you guys all quiet?" He asked slowly. "Did something happen?"

Tai sighed loudly. "Gee, I dunno either." He picked up the spade lying next to him and started digging furiously. A hole, a bigger hole, a tunnel.

T.K and Sora watched him digging away like crazy. Sand went flying into untidy piles beside him but Tai kept digging. Maybe he could dig to China!!

"…Tai…" T.K's eyebrows were furrowed down so close over his eyes. He tried to smile. "Uh, I'll be going now… I wonder where Matt and Mimi got to…"

He hurriedly sped away.

Tai barely looked his way. He was so unsure what he was doing. He just kept digging, and digging, and digging. He was also thinking, but not so much on the thinking part- more like letting thoughts drift over him.

_Was it a stupid idea coming here? What about… my soccer game? And Sora… I can't even control myself when I'm alone with her… but I can't do anything because of that promise. The promise… everyone else is always keeping that promise but why am I finding it so hard- even if I'm the one who made it?!? _

_I don't know! I don't know anything!! I don't wanna know anything!! I don't wanna be here! Crap, I don't… wanna be in love with… her… if it has to be like this!! _

Tai's frenzied digging finally slowed down. He slowly felt the spade drop from his hands into the deep hole with a soft thud.

Tai felt his hands, which were now clenched tight into fists shake violently. He kept looking downwards, towards the sand and letting his brown hair fall over his eyes, but he couldn't see anything.

Sora was shocked and bewildered. She watched Tai, and just felt herself trembling as well. It was so weird to see Tai lose control like this. She wasn't sure why he was acting so strangely and so unlike him. Her voice trembled but she ventured forward hesitantly.

"…Tai?"

Tai didn't reply. He kept his eyes closed and his head facing towards the ground.

_Splish! Splish! _

Small droplets of water hit the sand with soft tinkling sounds. But this time it wasn't water from T.K's bucket, they were tears. Glittering tears. Tai's tears.

Tai's eyes were squinted shut but he could feel the tears run down his face and fall into the sand. He still felt his fists shiver, and he felt such incredible sadness and distress at once.

Sora immediately reached out her hand to Tai's shoulder. "Tai! What…"

Tai suddenly turned towards Sora. It was the first time Sora had seen his face since she'd given him the long talk about the promise. Tai's eyes were full of incredibly angry confusion and sadness, so many different emotions rolled into one. They were still full of tears.

Tai took a haggard breath. "…don't touch me, Sora!" He stood and turned his back on her. He sounded angry and he continued incredibly ferociously, "You don't understand it at all! You just don't get it!! The promise and everything… you wouldn't know what it's like anyway… so don't talk about it like that!! I don't want you… to try to understand what I mean, or how I'm feeling… so please, Sora, just… don't try to know what kinda feelings I have!!"

Tai's words sounded harsh and ferocious. He could hardly believe that they had come out of his very own mouth. Because… the normal Tai wouldn't have done that. The normal Tai wouldn't have said something so cruel. The normal Tai wouldn't have said anything like that… to Sora. But he wasn't normal anymore.

Tai didn't want to leave just like that. But it was too late. All those horrifying words had come from his mouth and he had shocked both himself and Sora.

Sora stared at him. Her heart was beating out of her chest. "T-Tai…"

"Don't try to understand me!!" The words flew out before Tai could stop them. His chest was heaving up and down with all the effort of everything he'd said. Still with the tears in his eyes and making his sight blurry, Tai started to run.

Run as fast as he could. Where was he going? But he couldn't worry about that now, he just had to go! He had to get out of there.

Tai felt his feet pound hard against the warm sand as he ran away. He ran and ran and ran, away from the beach and towards the rows of beach-houses. Tears continued dripping down his face.

Tai sobbed. He lifted a hand to brush away the horrible tears but they kept flowing. It was at that very moment he crashed into Izzy.

Izzy's eyes widened like golf balls. "Tai?!?" He exclaimed, "Wh-what-?"

Tai looked at him, still with the hated tears rolling down his face. He glared at him with intensity and in his half-sobbing, half-demanding growl of a voice, Tai cried:

"Don't tell anyone!! Don't you ever… tell anyone… that I love her!!!!"

**Huh… I just can't put enough exclamation marks on the end of that sentence! Well, that's the end of the chapter. There was originally a paragraph about Izzy too, but I'm moving it to the next chapter. Anyway, thankyou for reading and please review!! **


	16. Episode 16!

**Hello everyone!! We're up to episode 16 now!! Wow!! And yeah, last chapter was maybe confusing for some of you, but it should get clearer later on. Man, for the first day at the beach-house, a lot's already happened. Unbelievable. Well then, please read and review!!**

"Don't tell anyone!! Don't you ever… tell anyone… that I love her!!!!"

**Episode 16: We won't give up!! **

Tai stood against a wall, resting his weight against it. His head was still bowed in anger and sadness.

"Tai… what's this about?" Izzy asked, confused.

Tai didn't say anything.

Izzy sighed. "It's Sora, right?"

Tai stiffened. He kept his mouth closed firmly so that he wouldn't say anything else that would give himself away.

Izzy said sympathetically. "Hey, Tai, you'll get over it. It's not like this promise means that you can't get together or anything. It just means that even if two of the Digidestined like each other, and conflicts or jealousy arises, then we have to be sure to still stay friends no matter what."

"…"

"You know that, Tai," Izzy said, "You're the one who created the promise in the first place!!"

"I-I know!! That's why it sucks!!" Tai cried. _It's so stupid that I was the one who made this promise, but I'm also the one who has the most trouble keeping it!! _

Izzy was quiet for a moment, wondering how to console his friend. "Well," he started, "You really aren't the only one who's on the verge of breaking your promise."

"Eh?" Tai looked bemused.

"I'm sure you've already figured it out," Izzy sighed, "Or I'm sure, Matt has and told you."

"Told me what?" Tai blinked.

He tried to remember something Matt had said about Izzy. Tai strained his head in thought.

"_Izzy. Koushiro loves her, doesn't he?" _

_Ping! _The little sound popped off in Tai's head. He only just vaguely remembered. It'd been quite a while back though.

Before Tai could say anything, Izzy gave out a little laugh. "I knew you guys would find out sooner or later. It's pretty obvious, isn't it? That I like Mimi."

"Hey, Izzy… but…" Tai frowned, "doesn't it get hard for you to be around her and all that? That's what happens to me when I'm around Sora."

Izzy straightened up. He looked up towards the sky. "Yeah, you're right. And I find it so irritating and annoying. I really wish I could just tell her how I feel, but then, I'm unsure what will happen to our friendship."

Tai said slowly, "I will never tell Sora how I feel. I can't!! It'd be so weird between us, how we're best friends and everything…"

"But what if she accepted you? Then things between you two would be even better!"

"Yeah right." Tai grunted.

Izzy said, "It's okay, Tai. We're both in the same situation. So we've got to work together."

Tai had stopped leaning on the wall. He was standing in front of Izzy, listening with a concerned face. His eyes still showed that he had been crying, but the tears had stopped now. He looked a little hopeful.

"You're… really going through the same thing I am?" Tai murmured. "I thought I was the only one."

"So typical of you, Tai."

Tai chuckled a little. "Well, I guess we'll really have to support each other, since we know each others' secrets."

"Anyway, Tai, so I really do know how you feel," Izzy said in an understanding tone. "I'm still not sure what happened between you and Sora, but don't give up, okay?" Izzy smiled.

"Don't you give up either!" Tai said.

"I won't." Izzy said in a whisper. He looked over towards Tai, "Let's get back to the beach-house. I think everyone else is waiting for us."

Tai and Izzy entered the beach-house. In the lounge room, everyone was lounging around. Matt looked sleepy and he was sprawled out all over one of the couches.

Joe was reading a book. Sora looked up in alarm when Tai and Izzy walked in.

"Eh, you're here." Matt said sleepily.

"Yeah," Tai replied.

"Um… hi," Sora spoke up.

Tai stared at her blankly for a while. He gave her a tiny smile. "Hey Sora."

Mimi and T.K were busy writing away on a piece of paper.

Mimi said enthusiastically to the late-comers, "We're choosing what we want for dinner!! We're gonna order Chinese!!"

"Yaayyy!!" T.K cheered.

Matt smiled drowsily. "Yeah, and T.K will eat everything, the glutton."

"Huh? What?!?" T.K cried.

Mimi had picked up the phone and started dialling a number. When she finished giving the guy on the other end the orders, she hung up and said, "They'll be about twenty minutes."

Twenty minutes later, the Digidestined were sitting at the dining room table, stuffing their faces full of food.

Tai stopped shoving sweet and sour pork into his mouth just long enough to gaze around at everyone. All of his friends. Everyone was eating hungrily and talking and enjoying themselves. It was at times like these when Tai was so proud to be a Digidestined.

He wondered how long things could stay the same. He had no idea how he could continue to hide his feelings for Sora. Was he even sure he wanted things to stay the same? He knew that, from what Izzy said, there was a chance that Sora would feel the same way about Tai and they could be happy together. Still, he didn't ever want to take that risk. Tai sighed and just about dropped his chopsticks.

"Wah!" Tai fumbled around with the chopsticks, trying to catch them before they fell onto the floor.

Mimi laughed at Tai's antics. Sora just gave him a strange look. Tai caught her eye but they immediately looked away from each other.

_I said some really… mean things to her today. I don't know how she could forgive me… so I'm sure she's angry at me right now… _Tai thought gloomily. _They were some really harsh words too… And then I just ran off and left her there. _

Sora returned to eating her meal. She didn't look at Tai or any of the other Digidestined. _Tai was acting really strange today. And he said some really cruel things. I'm sure… there must've been a reason- he was crying! But I can't help but feel really hurt. _

Tai and Sora both sighed at the same time. Things were gonna be difficult between them. And there were still six days to go!

It was later when everyone was sleepily finding their way to their bedrooms when Izzy crashed into Tai. Tai was half-asleep at that time so he took the blame.

"Sorry!" He said, "I was kinda half-asleep,"

"That's okay," Izzy assured him.

Tai opened the door to his and Matt's room. He yawned. "Remember not to give up, Izzy." He said softly, then closed the door quietly behind him.

Izzy went on his way to his room. He could see Mimi entering hers. His heart beat faster and he quickly looked away and walked faster to his bedroom.

_Yeah… I won't give up. _

**Hmm… interesting chappie, huh? About the part when Tai remembers what Matt told him about Izzy; I knew that Matt had told Tai, but I forgot when it was! I had to go through all the chapters to find it again. Man, this story is reaalllly looonngg. Thanks for reading!! Don't forget to review!! **


	17. Episode 17!

**I don't own Digimon!! Deal with it!! **

**Hey, emichii here!! SUP?!? Episode 17 already?? WOW!! Currently, Tai and Sora are facing difficult times so they aren't talking to each other much and Izzy has promised not to give up, therefore he plans to confess to Mimi some time during the trip. Huh… what a mouthful. **

**Here we are!! This episode, Sora and Tai are taking a backseat and we're also gonna finish off the unfinished stories of T.K and Matt. I told ya before that we had to get stories for ALL the digidestined!! Of course, Izzy makes his move too!! **

**Thanks for all your reviews so far!! Please read and review!! **

**Episode 17: T.K and Matt's brothers pledge!! **

When Tai woke up, the first thing he did was scream.

After Tai settled down and stared around his surroundings he remembered where he was. It was a Sunday morning and he was on the super-cool-awesome Digidestined holiday beach trip!!

Matt groaned as he sat up in his bed. He turned to Tai and grumbled, "Crap, Tai… you just woke me up and its too early to wake up!!"

Tai blinked. "Eh…? Oh, uh, sorry, Matt."

Matt just made an annoyed grunting sound and turned around and tried to get back to sleep.

Tai sighed and got up from his bed. Running a hand through his messy brown hair, he started walking out of the room. _Matt's sure grumpy first thing in the morning… wonder what he was dreaming about…?_

The door creaked gently when he pushed it open. Tai padded down the empty hallway to the bathroom. On his way, Sora accidentally bumped into him.

They blinked at each other.

"Oh hey Sora," Tai said sleepily.

"Hi," Sora said quickly. "Um…" she stared at Tai's funny-looking hair that was even funnier-looked in the morning. She smiled, "Good morning!"

"…Oh yeah… good mornin'," Tai mumbled.

Tai went into the bathroom and Sora went on her way. When she made sure Tai wasn't anywhere to be seen she let out a snort. And then a big giggle of hilarity rang out.

_Tai's hair is totally hilarious!! _She laughed.

All the Digidestined were finally up and sitting around the kitchen table at about ten thirty.

Mimi was brimming full of ideas and fun things they could do.

She waved a spoon around, "It's Sunday and we've got a whole day ahead of us!! There's so much we can do today!! So let's hit the beach early!! Yeah!"

The Digidestined got to the beach and Matt said, "Hey Tai, you're the athlete here… you wanna try surfing?"

Tai had been sitting rather glumly on the sand.

After all, it was only the beginning of the week and things were awkward between him and his best friend Sora. Not only that, there were heaps of things to worry about. The promise, his feelings for Sora were still mixed in with that. And then there was also another promise to Izzy, saying he wouldn't give up. Finally, the soccer tournament at the end of the week.

It was on Friday late afternoon- the last day everyone would be spending at the beach. He had yet to tell everyone that he'd have to leave early.

Tai sighed. He was the Digidestined leader. How would everyone react? Besides, he wouldn't have any time to work on his soccer skills before the match.

"Oi, Tai, did ya hear me?" It was Matt and he was sounding annoyed.

Tai perked up. "Yeah?"

Matt pointed at a nearby building. "You can go surfing! See, you can rent boards over there!!"

A grin spread over Tai's face as he jumped to his feet. "Surfing!! Awesome!!" He quickly bounded away from the others.

Matt chuckled. "Heh, I knew he'd do that."

Izzy just looked thoughtful.

Tai didn't look back at the others. He was heading off to do some sport but he had his thoughts with him. _Everything's so… weird right now… I just wanna get away from it all!! I just gotta surf away all your problems!! _

Mimi was setting up an umbrella in the sand. Sora was helping her.

Mimi may be a ditz and little bit shallow, but she really did care for her friends and she could always tell what was wrong.

"Hey, Sora?" she whispered. "What's with you and Tai? What happened between you two?"

"What do you mean?" Sora frowned.

"Well… you guys are best friends but ever since yesterday evening, you guys have hardly talked to each other."

Sora said nothing.

"Sora?"

Sora forced a smile. "Don't worry about, Mimi, it's nothing!"

"Hey Matt?"

Matt looked down at his little brother.

"'sup, lil bro?"

T.K gave a huge sigh that seemed too big for his body. "I don't know… I guess we're all on a holiday trip together and stuff… but its just weird…"

"What do you mean?"

"Well… Tai just doesn't seem like himself lately. And he and Sora are hardly talking to each other."

Matt gazed out onto the water where Tai was surfing. "Yeah, maybe."

T.K got a serious look in his eyes. "It's kinda like when you started acting all weird."

Matt and T.K sat on the sand and let the waves roll in and wet their feet.

"What do you mean I was acting weird?" cried Matt.

"I'm your brother, so of course I know when you're acting strange!!" T.K replied. "When you first started dating Sayo… it was as though you were abandoning the Digidestined. You never seemed to have enough time for us. And it really hurt our feelings whenever you did that. Especially mine…" T.K frowned.

Matt stared at the water washing across his feet. "…I'm sorry, T.K."

Matt stared back out at the ocean where Tai was still in the surf, alone.

"Yeah," he murmured, "I know what you mean. I didn't mean to hurt anyone's feelings and I ended up hurting all of you and Sayo too. And Mimi… But it's okay now, isn't it? I think I've learned something after all of this… my friends come first. Even if someone new comes in, I can't just let them drag me away from my friends. But even if I know that… there's still so much more I've gotta learn."

T.K raised his eyebrows. "Huh?"

"I realized when I broke up with Sayo. I realize whenever I see Mimi and think about how she felt towards me. I don't know how to really love anyone. I can see Tai and how much he loves Sora, and I can see Izzy and what he feels too. But frankly, I can't see myself loving anyone the way they do… there's so much I can't do. And I'm also Tai's best friend and I want to see things from his point of view. I want to help him as much as I can, but I can't, because I can't understand how he feels." Matt said.

Matt made a grumbling noise. "It's really annoying!! It's like I can't help anyone even though I can see others struggling!!"

_Every single day, I can see Tai struggling with his feelings for Sora. And every single day I can't do anything about it! Tai's the leader of the Digidestined but he needs people to support him too!! Especially lately, when he's just been sitting glumly by himself and thinking. I can't get into his head… and I don't know what's wrong with him. I want to help him but I can't! I'm meant to have the crest for Friendship so why can't I help?? Tai's already done so much for me but I can't do anything for him!! It just sucks!! _

Matt suddenly felt someone pat him on the arm. He looked over at T.K.

T.K said loudly, "Yeah, you can! Of course you can help others!! Matt, you're my big brother and I've always been watching you!! You're my role model and I think you're fine the way you are!! You might not be able to do things for others by yourself but because you want to help, it just shows how willing you really are!!"

Matt just stared at T.K.

Two pink spots appeared on T.K's cheeks. "It's true!"

A slow but pleased smile crept across Matt's face. He reached over and ruffled T.K's hair.

"Thanks, bro!"

Matt stood up straight and felt the nice cool water sweep over his bare feet again. It was accompanied by a nice breeze. He looked out at the ocean again.

"Yeah, you're right, T.K."

T.K got to his feet as well and stood beside Matt.

"You might not be able to help people out on your own, but if we're all in it together, we can do it!! We're the Digidestined after all!!"

"Yeah." Matt said.

T.K continued. "After all, we've got the crests for Friendship and Hope, right? So it's our responsibility and our job to look out for everyone, just like Tai's done for all of us!!"

Matt smiled. "Yeah, I'll make an oath to that,"

Matt and T.K grinned at each other.

_We gotta make sure everyone keeps the promise!! And we gotta make sure everyone's happy!! That's what us brothers are for!!_

It was nearing lunchtime when Izzy finally decided to tell Mimi the truth. He had to get to her alone and right now was a pretty good time. Tai had finally stopped surfing and now he, Matt, T.K, Joe and Sora were standing in the water throwing around a huge beach ball that looked like a watermelon.

Matt gave Izzy a funny look. "Where are you going, Izzy? Aren't you gonna play with us?"

Izzy quickly replied, "Oh, Mimi's gone to buy lunch, hasn't she? I'll just go with her, okay?"

He hurried off before anyone else could ask questions.

"Mimi!!"

Mimi turned around from putting her sandals back on. She was holding her sunhat onto her head and fastening a shoe with the other. She looked surprised. "Oh hey Izzy."

Izzy grabbed his shoes as well. "I'm just coming to buy lunch with you."

Mimi smiled. "Good! I won't have to look so lonely then!!"

They had been walking along the buildings and towns near the shops for about a minute, when Izzy finally started talking.

His heart was beating very fast. "Mimi, can I say something?"

"Hm? Sure, go ahead."

Izzy slowed down to a halt. He didn't want to look her in the eyes. He didn't want to look at her at all.

Mimi was confused. "Izzy? Why'd you stop?"

Izzy stopped looking at the ground and stared Mimi straight in the eyes. He had an abnormally serious expression on his face.

"What would you do if I told you I loved you?"

**Hello!! Well, episode 17's done. And let's tick off which Digidestined stories we've got done… Mimi's! Joe's! Matt's! T.K's! And we've got Izzy's next!! Sora and Tai's will still take some time, though… gosh, they're so dense!! **

**Today's special chapter lesson: "You might not be able to do things for others by yourself but because you want to help, it just shows how willing you really are!!" **

**Ha ha!! It sounds like something I'd say, seriously. Thankyou for reading everyone!! And thanks for all the reviews I've gotten!! It's so nice to hear from you!! And lots of you have interesting comments!! I'm still open to ideas for the Digidestined holiday trip… there are so many days to go… maybe I made the trip too long?? Anyway, read and review!! **


	18. Episode 18!

**Heya everyone!! Yep, Episode 18 comin' right up!! Yaayy!! Thankyou so much for all your reviews!! Please read and review!! **

"What would you do if I told you I loved you?"

**Episode 18: What would you do?**

"Eh?? Izzy?" Mimi's eyes were wide and she looked incredibly surprised. "Wh-what are you talking about?"

Izzy was serious. "You know what I'm talking about. What would you do?"

Mimi let out a nervous giggle. "Huh?" Mimi avoided Izzy's solemn gaze. "Heh, stop teasing me, Izzy!! Like you'd ever do that!!"

Mimi quickly started walking forward. "C'mon, Izzy, let's hurry up!! Everyone's waiting!"

Izzy sighed deeply as he watched the pink-haired girl that had taken his heart, walk away.

_Next morning: Monday, third day of the Digidestined beach holiday trip!! _

"Izzy? Whassup?" Tai wondered. "Are you okay?" He looked concerned. "I haven't had a chance to talk to you since yesterday, and I saw you… go after Mimi like that so I thought…"

Izzy lowered his head and smiled a sad smile. "Yeah, you're right. That's what happened."

"So?? What happened??" Tai cried.

Izzy smiled, but with no happiness in his eyes. "She thought I was teasing her and she took it as a joke."

"Ohh…" Tai said softly.

It was early Monday morning and Tai and Izzy were having a hushed conversation in whispers as they ate breakfast. It was a chilly day and the sky was grey and there wasn't any space of blue sky visible behind all the clouds.

Mimi sighed loudly. "Aww… dammit, it'll probably rain today!!"

"Yeah, probably…" echoed Sora.

"Oh well!!" Mimi said cheerfully. "I guess it's just the Digidestined spending a rainy day inside our totally awesome beach house!! We should go rent a movie or something!!"

"Yes…!" Joe said quietly. "A nice quiet peaceful day!"

_A nice quiet peaceful day? Yeah right!!!_

Tai was sitting on the couch, looking forlornly out the window. The clouds had gotten darker and it felt chilly, even though they were inside.

T.K was flipping through channels on the TV. When he thought Tai wasn't looking, he stopped and gave him an extremely concerned look.

_I really am worried about Tai. He really hasn't been like himself lately… _T.K turned and glanced at Sora, who was sitting in an armchair on the other side of the room. She was staring in the other direction from Tai. T.K sighed. As he resumed pressing buttons on the remote control, he knew that something was very wrong between the two.

Joe would normally not have worried about Tai. Tai was so excitable, and so energetic. Normally, Tai would be the one worrying about Joe. But even Joe could easily notice the difference in Tai's behaviour, especially when he was around Sora.

The bright spark in Tai's eyes was gone too, and it was just dim. He still acted like he normally would but being his friend, Joe could tell something missing. Tai laughed, and joked around, but whenever he smiled, it wasn't the carefree grin that Tai used to have.

Joe was worried. But he told himself not to. He coughed a little and went back to reading his book.

_If I see Tai and Sora like that one more time, I'm gonna scream!!!! _

Matt felt like ripping his hair out. It was the third day at the beach-house, for heaven's sake, and the whole time, wherever he looked, Tai and Sora were there. And they were always silent to each other. And every time they would be looking in the opposite direction.

_What is wrong with them?!? What happened between them?!?? _Matt was furious. He clenched his hand tightly around the Digidestined tag he was holding. He tried to calm himself down.

But, man, he had to do something!! They were all stuck in the house because of the weather, and Matt had no choice but to watch Tai and Sora act like this. It was driving him insane!!

_How long will this weather keep up?? _Matt frowned. _I've gotta do something to distract them!! _

"Ohhh…" Mimi stared at Izzy in the hallway.

Izzy looked back at her.

Mimi smiled. "Hey, Izzy," she said. "Let's go watch the movie with the others, huh?"

Izzy hardly heard her. "Huh? Ohh… yeah, okay."

"…" Mimi could still remember what Izzy had said the other day. In fact, his words were still ringing over and over again in her ears.

_What did he mean when he said that? _Mimi wondered, as she slowly made her way to the living room. _I brushed him off so quickly; I was scared of what he might've said next if I let him keep going…_

Before Mimi could disappear around the corner, Izzy suddenly grabbed her hand and blurted out: "Mimi! I meant what I said the other day!!"

Mimi's eyes were incredibly wide, with a hint of fear. Her voice trembled. "What?"

Izzy was still holding her hand and he was staring at it. "I-I… I'm in love with you, Mimi."

Mimi blinked. "Wh-what…?" Izzy's was holding her hand so gently yet it gave her great warmth. "I…I…"

Izzy tensed. He gulped and his hands shook a little. He hoped Mimi couldn't feel it.

Mimi took a deep breath. She said softly, "I'm sorry, Izzy."

Mimi wasn't sure what she was saying. Words just kept flowing from her mouth without her control. Well, maybe she did have some say what she was saying, but she didn't want to make it sound so cruel, but when it all came out, she shocked herself by how mean it all was.

Mimi stared seriously at Izzy. "I'm sorry, Izzy. I… could never love you… anymore than as a friend. I'm sorry."

She lifted her hands away from Izzy's and turned and walked away.

Izzy stared with hollow eyes. He was heart-broken and torn to pieces. He could still feel Mimi's gentle touch in his hands.

Mimi rushed to her room and closed the door after her. She leaned against the closed door, eyes in wide shock, breathing hard. Her heart was thumping so hard against her chest.

She stared at her hands which just a couple of seconds ago had been holding Izzy's.

_What did I do?!?_

Mimi stumbled through her and Sora's room in a kind of daze till she got to her bed. Then she collapsed onto it and sat there in complete numbed shock.

Then, all of a sudden, tears started rolling down her cheeks. They ran down her face and onto the bedspread with a soft splash.

_Why?!? _Mimi panicked. _Why am I crying?!??_

Matt, T.K, Joe, Tai and Sora were still in the living room, caught up in a movie. Or everyone else was except for Sora.

She glanced around the room quickly. As soon as she saw Tai, her heart thumped a little. However, she pushed it aside. Then she realized. Where was Mimi??

She looked around again. And Izzy? He wasn't here either!!

She hadn't seen Mimi for the whole time they were watching TV. Sora was worried so she stood up and started to creep out of the room. She was quiet so that no-one else would notice. But Tai saw her anyway.

Tai noticed Sora carefully tip-toeing away from the living room. He wondered where he was going. But as he watched her, guilt seared through him and his heart suddenly throbbed. Tai immediately looked away from her and turned his attention back to the screen.

_It doesn't matter… _Tai thought angrily. _I don't care!! …it wasn't like we were ever gonna be together…_

Sora quickly ran down the corridor towards her and Mimi's room. She noticed Izzy standing alone in the hallway. He was staring at the ground, his reddish-brown hair hanging over his eyes.

Sora immediately ran faster. She ran straight past Izzy, gaining speed, going faster and faster. Everything was a blur. She ran towards the room she shared with Mimi.

She pushed open the door and it opened with a bang against the wall. Sora rushed towards her best friend.

Mimi was curled up on her bed, hugging her knees tightly and staring at the bedspread. Her pink hair was falling all over her shoulders and over her eyes.

"Mimi?? What happened? Why are you-?!?" Sora cried.

Mimi looked up at Sora. "Ohh… Sora…"

Shock ran through Sora. Mimi's eyes were full of tears. That was one thing she saw clearly.

Sora fell back onto the bed next to Mimi. She was incredibly worried. "Mimi? What… happened??"

Tears kept streaming down Mimi's face.

She smiled at Sora, even though she wasn't happy.

Still with the tears falling, she wailed softly, "I do love him!! I really do love… Izzy…!!"

**Episode 18 is over!! Yeaahh!! How totally awesome was that chapter, huh?? Ya gotta admit it!! Well, I started typing it while listening to my Kisschasy CD. I love the 'tiny plastic cup' song!! It's the best!! **

**Anyway, thankyou so so much for all your awesome reviews!! I got some great ideas for the FFFD crew to do on their trip. Laser tag!! That was a really good idea!! Thanks so much!! It will happen next episode!! Thanks very much!! **

**Please read and review!! emichii!! **


	19. Episode 19!

**Hey everyone!! Whassup?? We're up to episode 19 now and it's been awesome!! Yaayyy!! Thanks so much for all your supportive comments and reviews!! They make me really happy!! There've been a couple of people suggesting what the Digidestined could do on their holiday too!! Thankyou very much!! **

**Well, I should probably stop talking now and give you the next chapter!! Here you go and please read and review!! **

**I don't own Digimon.**

**Episode 19: A little bit of time**

_OOOKKAAYY!! THIS IS IT!!! _

Matt stood up in a big huff and shouted, "I'VE HAD ENOUGH!!! I'M SICK OF THIS!! I'M SICK OF EVERYONE ACTING SO BITTER TOWARDS EACH OTHER!! SO WE'RE GOING TO GET OUT OF THE HOUSE AND DO SOMETHING FOR A CHANGE!!!"

Everyone stared at Matt. The blonde boy was furious and his shoulders went up and down at how much effort he had used up. The tag with the crest of Friendship in it swung from around his neck like a pendulum.

Matt glared at everyone with huge intensity.

"THAT'S WHY WE'RE GOING TO PLAY LASER TAG!!!"

_Currently: Tuesday morning, fourth day of the Digidestined holiday trip_

"Huh?" Everyone blinked.

Normally-cheerful Mimi just stayed silent, instead of opening her big mouth and letting big ideas start exploding. Her soft pink hair fell over her shoulders and she gave a big sigh.

_I'm still not sure… what I should do now… Everything's gotten so complicated. I can't even look at Izzy… and things are still so bitter between Sora and Tai…_

Mimi smiled painfully to herself. _I don't blame Matt for feeling so annoyed!! _

XXXxxxFLASHBACKxxxXXX

"I really do love… Izzy…!!"

"…Mimi…" Sora murmured. She moved closer towards Mimi and hugged her supportively. Mimi's tears fell onto her shoulders but Sora didn't care.

"I'm… not sure what's happened… and I have no idea what the situation is, but I told you before I'd try to understand… That's why you should stop crying, Mimi,"

Mimi sniffed and pulled away from Sora. She looked at her pathetically. "Huh?"

Sora smiled, "Besides, Izzy likes you best when you're smiling!!"

A giggle came from Mimi's lips. She hiccupped for a while as she wiped away the remainder of her tears. She knew her best friend Sora would always be there for her and always support her, regardless of what might happen, and she was so grateful to her. Sora had made her feel so much better.

"_Besides, Izzy likes you best when you're smiling!!"_

But…

Mimi's eyes drifted back down to the bedspread which had the faded tearmarks on it.

_Even if I have Sora with me to comfort me… how will I ever be able to make amends with Izzy again? _

XXXxxxENDFLASHBACKxxxXXX

"Mimi?? Hey Mimi??" Matt was leaning over her with a concerned expression on his face. "What's going on? You all spaced-out?"

"What?" Mimi chuckled. "No, I'm right here! I'm fine!"

"Okay," Matt said. He smiled. "Then let's all go play Laser Tag!!"

The whole Digidestined group walked down to the city buildings that were further from the beach. They were walking through the busy streets that were filled with people bustling past.

Matt felt a little strange. _Ha, _he laughed at himself, _I can't believe I did this!! It was really spontaneous, especially for me. It's more the kind of thing Tai would do… _He snuck a glance at Tai. Tai was strolling towards the end of the group, lagging a couple of steps behind.

Matt's worry antennae went up again. He frowned. _I wanted so much to do this and try to stop the gap widening between us all, but it doesn't seem to be working too well… Sora's been sticking by Mimi's side all the time and that's fine, but she still barely looks at Tai. Tai is acting so strangely that everyone's worried. Even Mimi has been really quiet. And Izzy… he hasn't said a word for ages. I wonder what happened to him._

Matt couldn't stop worrying as he walked. But suddenly a spark of determination and duty hit him and he felt a little more motivated. The tag with the Crest of Friendship glinted from its place around his neck in the sun.

_Huh… I've got the Crest of Friendship, right? Well, it's my job to make sure everyone gets along again!! _

Just then, they arrived in front of a building that was painted dark grey. It had dark black-tinted windows and the huge double door had LASER TAG in heavy red paint on it.

Matt marched all the way up to it and flung open the doors.

He turned and smirked at all his friends.

"Come on!! It's time to move on from all your troubles and play LASER TAG!!!"

"Out of all the things I would've thought of doing at this trip, I never thought of this one!!" Joe cried.

Tai seemed to have brightened up considerably. The Digidestined were standing in the hallway of a totally modern Laser Tag place. They were just waiting for the other group to finish their game.

"So…" Matt said slyly, "Since there are seven of us, we'll be in two groups of two and one group of three."

Tai was soon back to his usual self, waiting impatiently for the other people to finish, and looking incredibly excited.

Matt looked at Tai deviously out of the corner of his eye. "So…" he said, "Mimi, Joe and T.K are one team, me and Izzy are another team and Sora and Tai are the last team."

Tai jerked to attention. Sora was suddenly paying attention.

"What?!?" They cried.

"What's wrong with you guys?" Matt said, "Aren't you two best friends?"

Tai and Sora said nothing. They hadn't actually planned to let anyone know things were frosty between them but it was really kinda obvious.

Suddenly, people started streaming out from the open doors of the laser tag area. One of the demonstrator people came up to them and said, "Okay guys, it's your turn. Go grab your packs from the hooks on the wall."

So Tai and Sora went obediently but a little reluctantly.

Still, Sora was determined to enjoy herself. _This holiday is meant to be fun!! And I can't go wrecking things for everyone else!! _

She turned to Tai as she was fastening the buckles on her pack. She smiled softly, "Let's do our best, Tai!"

Tai was surprised for a moment. Then his eyes softened and he gave her a small grin back. "Yeah! Let's go for it!"

The Digidestined entered the dark Laser Tag stadium. It had walls and stairs, making it an awesome maze.

Sora and Tai's packs suddenly lit up with light. Tai couldn't stop a thrill of excitement running through him.

He could hear footsteps and excited shrieks coming from around the room. He could see Sora next to him. His heart was thumping away. Tai wasn't gonna let his and Sora's troubles wreck everyone else's day.

Tai grabbed his laser gun and shouted to Sora, "Okay, let's win this!!"

T.K was standing by himself under his team's base. He was trembling with excitement and his heart was racing. He looked to his left and right to check no-one was around. Suddenly, he saw the glimmer of light from someone else's pack.

Impulsively, T.K immediately shot them.

"Ah!! What happened?? Why'd you shoot me?" Mimi cried.

T.K gasped. "Ohh!! I'm sorry! I was just so nervous!! I didn't mean to shoot you!!"

A couple of seconds later, Mimi's pack lit up again and then it died again.

"What??" T.K and Mimi cried.

"Huh? I shot you??" Joe's voice came from above them. He was standing at a platform.

"Yeah, Joe!!" Mimi cried. "We're on your team!!"

Joe was flustered, "I'm sorry!!"

"Found you!!" Matt bounded up behind Joe and shot him. Matt then went down the stairs as fast as he could to go after T.K and Mimi.

Izzy was busy destroying Tai and Sora's base when T.K came up to him.

"Hah?" Izzy cried. He tried to defend himself but his pack when dead and T.K pushed ahead of him and started shooting the base.

"Oh I ain't gonna let you get our base!!" Tai appeared suddenly and attacked T.K's pack. T.K groaned and moved out of the way to let his pack come back to life. Izzy's pack suddenly reared to life and he went for the base again.

Tai grabbed his gun and aimed for Izzy. There was a sound and Tai's gun didn't work.

"Huh?" he wondered, dismayed.

Matt walked up to him, gun in hand, and victorious smirk on face. Izzy kept on shooting the base.

"Hey, I wasn't gonna let you shoot a team member," Matt explained.

Tai waited anxiously and annoyed for his pack to light up again. Crap, how was he meant to protect his base!! It was two against one!!

The base exploded and Izzy and Matt high-fived.

Tai was back in action but Matt was prepared. He was just pressing the trigger when his own pack was disabled.

"What?!?" Matt cried.

Tai immediately shot Izzy. Izzy groaned. Sora appeared from around the corner. She glanced at Tai.

"Th-thanks," Tai murmured.

"No problem," said Sora as she walked past him.

Tai and Sora were everywhere at once in the room. There were only two of them but they were an amazing team. For some reason, whenever one of them were in trouble, the other one would appear and help.

Maybe they were just used to being on a team together, what with soccer and the Digidestined and everything. Still, it was strange that they were working so well together even though they had hardly spoken to each other.

Joe was actually really proud of himself. Izzy and Matt's base exploded and he cheered quietly for himself. Joe had been kinda nervous about this Laser Tag game but he found that he was enjoying it more and more.

He had even hit a lot of people.

Joe spotted Sora hiding behind a wall, so he started sneaking up on her. Little did he know, he wasn't the only one. T.K and Mimi had decided to stick together because they were stronger that way and they were sneaking up the other end. Matt was also running down a ramp, swinging his laser gun.

Izzy was walking and he could see Sora just ahead of him.

Everyone was ganging up on Sora!!

Sora was wondering why it was so quiet. She was suspicious and a little nervous.

"Hm, where'd everyone go?" she whispered.

She spotted Izzy and bounded forward to shoot him. At that moment, Joe, Mimi and Izzy decided to strike.

Izzy went down!! Joe and Mimi and Izzy were a bit too late and shot each other. Sora gave a sigh of relief. Man, that was _really _close!

"Hah!!" Matt suddenly emerged in front of her and aimed at her. Sora was shocked out of her skull and completely unprepared.

Then, to both of their surprise, Matt's pack died.

Who'd done it?

Matt looked around in surprise, but Sora knew who it was, because Joe, Izzy, Mimi and T.K were already disabled. She could just see a dark shadowy figure disappear behind a wall.

Sora held the gun tightly in her hands and gazed after where Tai had been. Old feelings re-emerged from inside her and her face went warm. _Thankyou… Tai…_

A whirring sound was suddenly heard, and the lights came back on. Everyone blinked. The Digidestined were smiling and laughing happily as they exited the room. Tai's eyes adjusted to the light again, and he could see Mimi looking very happy.

The Digidestined hung around in the hallway while T.K was in the toilet. Everyone got their results back. Tai and Sora's team had won, but the person who had the most points was Joe! Joe had surprised everyone, especially himself. Joe fiddled with his glasses as he turned an impressive shade of red.

Everyone was in a good mood and talking and chatting away.

Mimi found Izzy standing a little way away from the others. She slowly made her way over to him. Izzy was clearly very shocked.

Before he could say anything, she squeezed her eyes shut and cried out, "Izzy! Please hear what I have to say!!"

The pink-haired girl was bowing her head while she was standing in front of Izzy. She spoke softly but purposefully.

Mimi said, "I'm sorry for what I said yesterday… I know it must've really… hurt you deeply… so I'm very sorry!! And I-I… I also apologise because what I said wasn't true at all!!" Mimi raised her head and looking a little frightened, glanced at Izzy.

"What you said just took me by surprise, that's all!!" Mimi explained, face blushing. "I… I do still think of you as a friend, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't attracted to you at all… Because it's true that lately… I've developed a crush on you and now I've started to like you more and more…"

Izzy watched Mimi wide-eyed, his own face warming up.

Mimi stammered, "So, uh… Izzy, please would you just… give me a little bit of time?? I need a bit of time to understand my own feelings more… I need to… think about the promise… and I know that in a bit of time… I will grow to love you… as much as you love me."

Izzy's heart lightened. Mimi tensed and braced herself as he was about to speak.

Izzy gave Mimi a huge happy smile. "Sure!" he said.

What he did next was surprising but so sweet. He stood on his toes and because Mimi had been bowing her head down, he managed to place a hand on her head comfortingly.

Mimi smiled with tears in her eyes. Izzy smiled right back.

_All we ever needed… was just a little bit of time… _

_A little bit of time to understand our feelings and develop them for each other… _

Tai and Sora caught each other's eyes.

Inside the Laser Tag zone they had almost been like best friends again but as soon as they stepped outside, everything changed again.

Feelings of frosty bitterness had still not faded between them.

_Just a little bit of time…_

Tai's eyes hardened as he and Sora turned away from each other.

_So that one day… we may find each other._

**Awww!! I love this chappie!! I've been planning this since… hmmm… the past 3 chapters?? I love it!! I love the way the last part turned out!! Don't you love it too?? **

**A very big thankyou to the wonderful reader who suggested Laser Tag!! THANKYOU!!! **

**And thank **_**YOU **_**for reading!! Please review and tell me what you think!! **


	20. Episode 20!

**Hey you all!! Thankyou so much for all your reviews!! By the way, lots of people said that Laser Tag was an awesome idea! Well, it's all thanks to lostheart480!! lostheart480 was the one who suggested it!! Thankyou heaps!! Yaayy!! Well, episode 20 is here!! So please read and review!!! **

**Episode 20: Things to worry about!! **

_Wednesday late afternoon, fifth day of the Digidestined holiday_

The Digidestined were heading back to their beach house. The sun was setting slowly and everyone was in a pretty good mood. It had been a good day, after the Laser Tag yesterday. Things were still icy between Tai and Sora but getting better. And Izzy and Mimi were good friends again.

Tai was walking back to the beach house slower than the others. His head was full of plans and secrets. He seriously needed to be back at Odaiba by Friday because of his tournament match.

So if he had to play soccer, there was no way he could let his team down. The soccer match was Friday evening, so he had planned to just get up really early Friday morning, take a train to Odaiba and get to his match, with enough time to warm up and work with his team.

Tai sighed aloud and ran a hand through his slightly wet brown hair. Sora could hear him sigh.

Sora was walking silently along with Mimi. She had been thinking a lot lately. She knew that she'd been acting incredibly bitter towards Tai, but she was also really worried about him. Tai was so different. She wished he'd return back to the happy-go-lucky guy he was before. Throughout the whole trip so far, he hadn't been acting like himself.

Sora was a little scared that he might stay that way forever. And it was already getting a little hard to remember the way Tai was before he suddenly shut himself away from the others.

The Digidestined were walking up the road to the house.

T.K noticed a place where they could buy ice cream.

"Let's get ice cream, guys!! Please!! " he pleaded.

Izzy went up to the ice cream parlour with T.K. "Okay," he said. "What flavour does everyone want??!?"

While everyone was busy making up their minds, Sora slowly went up to Tai. Tai was surprised. He stared at her. "What?"

Sora said softly, "Tai, uhh… I know I've been a little cold to you lately… and I'm… really… sorry…"

Tai immediately spoke up, "No! It was my fault! You had every reason to be pissed at me after all the mean things I said to you!! I said so much cruel and horrible things to you… I…I feel like such a dickhead."

They stood facing each other in silence.

Tai said slowly, "I am… really very sorry, Sora."

"…uh…" Sora looked up at Tai. Slowly, a smile spread over her face. "That's okay, Tai."

Tai felt a little spark of happiness grow warm in his chest. Out of all the million burdens he was carrying over his shoulders, he felt one of them lighten a little.

Sora reached forward and wrapped her arms around Tai giving him a warm hug. Tai felt her hair against her chin and blushed a little.

Sora smiled. "It's all okay now, Tai! We're still always gonna be best friends!"

Tai grinned back. But standing there with Sora in his arms it was still awkward. He could remember the last time she had hugged him.

"…_Your friendship is one of the things I treasure most, Tai!"_

Tai's eyes darkened. _I don't care… even if my burdens have lightened right now… I will never be rid of them. _

"Eh?" T.K popped up all of a sudden. Sora and Tai separated.

T.K held out two ice cream cones to them. He smiled brightly, "C'mon, let's go!"

_Thursday evening, sixth day of the Digidestined holiday trip_

It was after dinner and the Digidestined were lazing around in the living room. T.K and Izzy were half-asleep and Matt was only a little interested in the show on TV.

Tai had recovered from the severe case of un-Tai-ness from before, though his best friend Matt still had a hunch something was wrong. Tai was frowning at the Sports page in the newspaper when Sora suddenly called out.

"Tomorrow there are fireworks!!" She exclaimed.

Hardly anyone moved, besides a couple of stomachs heaving and falling as people breathed in and out.

Sora was not happy with the reactions of her friends. She looked at each of them furiously.

"They're having fireworks down at the beach tomorrow at 7!! Tomorrow will be our last day here so we should definitely go watch them!! Right, Mimi?" She turned to Mimi.

Mimi said blankly, "Sora, tomorrow evening we'll all be busy packing and cleaning up. You know we leave first thing Saturday morning."

"…" Sora was dismayed. "Aw crud, that sucks!" she said.

Sora thought for a while. Then she quickly turned to all the others. Maybe her best friend Mimi was refusing to come with her, but the other Digidestined would, right?

The others pretty much agreed with Mimi. Especially Joe and Izzy.

Joe fiddled with his glasses. "Our train home is really early, Sora. We'll have to be all packed up and everything. I hate being late!!"

Izzy nodded. "Yep. We've gotta clean this place from top to bottom. We're giving it back to the owners on Saturday."

Sora sighed dejectedly. How crappy.

Tai hadn't been paying much attention. He was annoyed because his favourite team had lost their match. And just thinking about sports from reading the newspaper reminded him of his own soccer match.

"Hey, Tai…" Sora started, sitting down next to Tai on the floor.

"Yeah?"

Sora looked hopefully at him. "Fireworks are on tomorrow evening at the beach. Will you come with me, Tai?"

Tai looked up from the newspaper. He gazed at Sora from under droopy eyelids.

He made a bored expression as though he couldn't care less. "Huh…" He muttered.

Sora blinked, still looking at Tai with extreme hopefulness. "Please, Tai?"

Tai looked at her for a moment. He felt his heart thumping away in his chest. He looked away from her and at the floor. "…Okay."

Sora was immediately happy. "Really? Yeah!! Awesome!"

Mimi raised her head and turned to Sora from her spot in the armchair. "What's so awesome, Sora?"

"Tai's coming to the fireworks with me!" Sora told her. "Isn't that right?"

"Yeah." Tai murmured.

Mimi said, "He's probably just saying that to make you feel happy. Tai will be just as busy as the rest of us tomorrow."

"No he won't!!" Sora cried. "Tai will come!!"

She turned to Tai and said, "Promise you'll come!!"

"Yeah." Tai said, "Promise."

Sora beamed. It was a huge bright grin that just about blinded Tai. Not only that, it caused his face to redden. He felt embarrassed.

Just then, his mobile phone made a noise that indicated he had a new message. Tai reached into his pocket to see. It was from Tomo.

_Hey Tai, the soccer match is tomorrow at 7. Don't be late! Seeya there! _

Tai's face paled a little. Sora noticed and asked with concern, "What is it, Tai? What was that message about?"

Tai quickly closed his phone and stuffed it back in his pocket. He grinned at Sora in his carefree way. "It's nothing to worry about."

_Heck yeah, there's a lot of things to worry about!!! _

**Whaddaya think? I quite liked that chapter, though not much happened! Not to worry, the next few chapters will be as action-packed and jammed full of stuff as the "Joe story arc". Yaayyy!! But you know what this means? The end of this chapter marks the beginning of the last story in this fic! That may be a good things yet it'll be awfully sad. If you've been following this story for a while, you'll know that all of the Digidestined have taken time to discover themselves. **

**Yet Sora and Tai haven't been able to do that yet. Tai still has so many burdens and dark secrets… **

**Yep… you've all been reading for a long time. It's finally Sora and Tai's turn!! What you've been waiting for for so long!! It'll be exciting, so don't forget to read next week!! **

**Read and review!! **


	21. Episode 21!

**I don't own Digimon. **

**Hi everyone!! Woohoo!! It's the holidays!! YEAAHHHH!! I figured quite a few of you read the last chapter as soon as it came out, so you'll have realized it came out earlier than usual. That was because on the day when I normally update, I went to Sydney!! Yep. It was just a short holiday trip and it was fun!! I managed to reply to all your awesome reviews on the internet at the hotel. **

**So… here I am back at home, typing away. **

**Thankyou for all your reviews everyone!! I'm sure everyone is excited about what's gonna happen with Tai and his soon-to-be-broken promises!! **

**FFFD episode 21 coming right up!!**

**Read and review!! from emichii**

**Episode 21:**** You'll never be mine **

_Friday afternoon, last day of the Digidestined holiday trip _

While everyone was busy packing and cleaning, Tai had already packed his bags. They were sitting neatly on the floor. Matt raised his eyebrows when he saw Tai all ready and everything.

"…Hey, Tai?" he asked.

"Yeah?"

Matt pointed at Tai's bags. "We're leaving tomorrow, Tai, you didn't have to pack the stuff you need for tonight."

_Yeah, but I'm leaving today not tomorrow. _Tai just shrugged and left the room. Matt stood there, feeling extremely concerned. Tai still hadn't returned to his old self, and Matt was more scared than ever that Tai would never be the same.

At four o'clock, Sora grabbed Tai's arm and started dragging him to the beach. Tai had been planning to sneak out then.

"Hey, what gives?" he asked, startled.

"Let's go!!" Sora said, "You promised, remember?"

"But the fireworks don't start till 7!!" Tai cried.

"I don't care," said Sora, pulling him out the door. "There's a lot of things we need to talk about."

Tai and Sora walked silently along the beach. Tai was uncomfortable. He knew he had to go right now! He had to quickly think up some crappy explanation and make a run for it!

But he and Sora were walking together on the beach. Sure, he knew it closely resembled one of his old abandoned fantasies, but… Tai's eyes were dark. _I've already given up on you, Sora… because… I know that you'll never be mine. _

Sora suddenly spoke up, "Tai… I just wanted to say that… I'm sorry… I haven't been keeping the promise."  
"…huh?" Tai was startled out of his daze.

Sora was staring intently at the sand. Her face was warm and pink. "Tai… I'm just like Mimi… I fell in love with someone too."

Tai said nothing.

Tears started to form in Sora's eyes. "I knew I shouldn't have… and I know I've been such a hypocrite. I… I… was like, lecturing you about all of us breaking this promise… and you felt hurt then… though I'm not sure why… I'm so sorry, Tai… because I broke the promise too!"

Tai didn't look at Sora. He stood there, with emotions and thoughts tumbling wildly inside him. He tightened his fist. _It is true, isn't it, Sora? You are in love with Matt… I had thought so before… _

"I…knew it was really stupid of me…" Sora said, her voice trembling and the tears building in her eyes. "…so I tried my hardest to hide it, but I couldn't! I…I'm so horrible," Sora cried.

Tai felt in his heart great sadness for both him and Sora. He wanted to comfort her and he wanted to tell her everything was okay. But the darkness and hurt inside him kept him back.

"I know that he will never feel the same… so I told myself that I wouldn't let myself be hurt so badly. I said… I told myself… that I would never fall in love again! I won't… Never again will I let myself go through that pain… I don't want to feel this way… I never wanted to fall in love!! Because…" Sora's eyes spilled over with tears. They fell mercilessly from her eyes and hit the sand, making small damp spots on it.

"B-because I know that loving someone will only ever bring pain!!!"

Tai made no move to reach out for Sora and say anything helpful. His eyes were dark and full of anger and hatred. He was gone. The old Tai couldn't stay anymore… he had already known long ago that Sora would be like this. And that was why… that was why he had hid his secret for so long because he knew Sora wouldn't accept him.

Sora's cries were bitter and full of hurt. Tai stood unmoving in his spot. He watched her cry without any compassion. But suddenly, he felt a spark of the old him returning.

"What… are you talking about, Sora?" he said quietly. "Who said that he'd never feel the same? And… it's not like no-one else will fall for you…"

Sora raised her head and looked at him with red tearful eyes.

"Did you know… that you are dearly loved?" Tai went on. "…by someone who knows you will never feel the same… He… loves you more than anyone else in the whole entire world. He… holds you dearest to his heart and he once promised his friend he would never give up… but he can no longer think that way… because he knows its all just a fantasy in his head… he can't act like himself anymore because of this…"

Tai stared seriously at Sora. His heart felt heavy and full of dread. This girl… Sora… just standing in front of him and watching him with such sad eyes… Tai felt his heart throb…

_Why…? I can't… even look at you the same anymore… all these promises I have broken… but I can't keep hiding like this… I…_

_I will no longer think that you'll ever be mine… but I still had that tiny bit of hope, I still wished that maybe… just maybe… somehow… _

Tai stared down at the sand under his feet. "You know… Sora, this guy is… He… he can't help himself anymore… he's…"

Tai felt his heart break even more and the reality of the situation and everything he had said got to him. Tai felt like he had to leave. He couldn't handle anymore.

Just then, from some other part of the beach, the people who were preparing fireworks started giving one a test run, to make sure everything would be ready for the show two and a half hours from now.

"…he's me." Tai whispered and turned and ran.

The fireworks went off. Sora couldn't hear what Tai had said. She could only see his figure running away further and further.

"…What?" Sora cried. "What did you say, Tai?"

Tai just kept running, as hard as he could.

"Tai?? Tai!!" Sora cried.

Tai left Sora there at the beach. For some reason, this all reminded him of the other time he ran away from Sora. But it was also very different. The hurt he had felt before was back but hurt a lot more. He was running faster. His hurt was magnified so much more. And once again, those hated tears came back and ran down his face.

Tai's feet pounded hard on the pavement as he left the beach and ran down the path towards the train station. Tears had taken over him again and wrecked his body.

He glanced at his watch, tore into the station, threw his ticket at the bewildered station guy and ran into the waiting train.

The doors closed abruptly and the train started moving. Tai sat down dejectedly on a seat. He gazed out the window. Tai raised a hand to hurriedly brush away tears.

The train set off on its long journey to Odaiba.

Tai's spirit was quickly diminishing as he gazed into the distance out the window.

His eyes lowered.

_Sora… our story is over… _

**AWWW!! You have no idea how long I have been planning and keeping this story in my head for!! But… this means FFFD is just about ending. It's okay, though, I'll give you guys notice of the story ending at the second-last chapter. That's what I do for most of my fics anyway. **

**Well… I'm exhausted. Aahh… this chapter has taken so much outta me... I gotta cheer myself up!! Hmm… did you now that originally this fic was gonna be called Friends Forever, Digidestined Forever? Then it would've been called FFDF. Before that, this fic might've even been called Between Friends. **

**Anyway… thanks for reading!! Please read and review!! Next chapter out next week!! Please check it out!! **


	22. Episode 22!

**Hey everyone!! emichii here!! Did anyone get confused about what I was saying in the last author note? Because someone said they thought the last chapter was the second-last one but it's not!! What I meant was when the story is going to end; at the second-last chapter I will tell you it's the second-last chapter!! Get it?!? Anyway, FFFD isn't ending just yet!! Yes!! Still plenty more to go!! **

**Here's episode 22!! Read and review!! **

**PS: I don't own Digimon. **

**Episode 22: Finding Tai!!! **

Sora ran back to the beach house as fast as she could. She had no idea where Tai had disappeared to. She ran through the door and thundered up the stairs.

Sora pushed open the door to her and Mimi's room. "Mimi!!" she cried.

Mimi was alarmed. "What is it, Sora?"

"Mimi! Tai- he's gone!! He… ran off!!!"

"What?" Mimi was incredibly confused.

"I… well, we went to the beach and we were talking about the promise and stuff… and then all of a sudden he ran off!! I don't know where he is!!" Sora panicked.

Mimi dropped everything she was holding. She looked so worried. "We've gotta find him!"

Mimi and Sora ran down the hallway and banged on Tai and Matt's door. Matt opened the door. "What-" he noticed Mimi and Sora's stressed expressions, "What happened?!?" Matt cried.

"Tai's disappeared!!" Mimi and Sora exclaimed.

"WHAT?!?" Matt frowned. "Why would he do that?"

"I-I'm not sure!" Sora replied. "But we've gotta find him!!"

Matt tried to remember if there was anything strange that Tai had done or said to him. All he could remember was that Tai had packed everything into his bags that morning.

"All I know is that he was all packed as though he was gonna leave today or something." he told them.

Mimi ran down further to Izzy, Joe and T.K's room. She threw open the door and screamed, "Tai's gone missing!!! He ran away!!"

Izzy jumped to his feet, "Why would he do that??"

"I don't know!!" Mimi said, waving her hands in distress.

Everyone gathered out in the hallway.

"Doesn't anyone know anything??" Sora cried.

"No…" they all said.

Sora looked down at her watch. "It's already 4:40!! Where did he go?!?"

T.K tried to think. "Well… today's Friday, right? Did Tai have anything on?"

"If he did, he didn't tell any of us!!" Joe said. "Why wouldn't Tai tell us?"

"…we should phone Kari or something," said Izzy. "I'm sure she'd know if Tai had anywhere he had to go."

Matt grabbed his phone from his pocket. "What's Kari's mobile number?" he asked hurriedly.

T.K happily recited it.

Matt was a little disturbed that T.K could memorize Kari's phone number but pumped it in and waited. Everyone else waited nervously.

"Hello?" Kari's voice came in from Matt's mobile.

"Hey Kari, this is Matt. Uhh… well, Tai's disappeared, and-" Matt went on hurriedly before Kari could panic. "We think maybe he had somewhere he had to go to. Uh, do you know if he had anything on??"

Kari didn't seem to be very worried. "Huh? Tai has a soccer match on at 7 o'clock. Didn't you know that? I mean, you're his best friend and everything! How come you didn't know?"

"I… I didn't know! Tai never told me!" Matt said.

Kari said, "Well, he's probably on his way back to Odaiba to make it in time for his game."

"Oh… thanks, Kari. Um, see you." Matt hung up. He was going to explain everything to his friends but he could tell by their expressions that they already knew everything.

Everyone ran down the stairs and out of the house.

Joe said, "We've got to get to the train station! Maybe he hasn't left yet!"

"No, he would have already left by now. There's a train ride at 4:35. He probably took that one," Izzy told him.

Sora was very worried and she ran in front of everyone towards the station. "Even if he took that train ride he'd still be late for his match. He'd arrive at Odaiba at around 7. And then he'd have to get to the soccer field."

"So… he'd still be about 10 minutes late." T.K said. "Oh… why didn't he just tell us he had to go?"

Mimi said, "He didn't want us to know he had to leave the holiday early, I guess. But that's really annoying of him!! We would've let him go anyway!"

Sora kept running ahead of everyone else. She got to the train station and looked at the list on the wall that showed all the trips to Odaiba. "Hey guys, the next trip is… in about 2 minutes!!"

"A train leaves every twenty minutes," said Izzy. "We'll get to Odaiba twenty minutes after the match has started and then we'd have to run to the soccer field so it would be half-time."

Everyone quickly bought tickets and waited nervously for the train to arrive. Sora's thoughts were tumbling all around her. She tried to remember all the things Tai had said to her.

The train arrived and the doors opened. The digidestined (minus Tai) rushed in. T.K's heart was racing. Everyone was excited and nervous at the same time.

Sora sat quietly on a seat. Mimi sat next to her, talking to Izzy. Sora just sat there, thinking and reminiscing. _Tai promised he'd go to the fireworks with me even though he knew he had a soccer match… he broke that promise but… aw crap! If I had known he had a soccer match, I wouldn't have made him come to the beach with me!! Maybe then, he wouldn't arrive late!! _

_Tai's the captain of his team so it's really bad if he gets there late!! _Sora thought miserably. _He knew he had to leave but he took the time to listen to me… and he tried to comfort me when I was crying… _

_Someone… who loves me more than anyone else in the world?? Someone who holds me… dearest to his heart?? Someone… who knows I will never feel the same?? Who was Tai talking about anyway? And how did he know all that? _Sora buried her head in her hands and sighed deeply.

_How'd I get everyone into this mess?? Was it all because… I fell in love with Tai?!? _

_Friday evening, Odaiba, 7 o'clock _

At the soccer field, Tai's team was in panic mode. The game was starting and Tai hadn't arrived. He was the captain!! He couldn't be late!!

"What if he doesn't come??" one of the team-mates cried.

Tomo glanced around him nervously, "No! He'll come! I know he will!"

Zuki ran a hand through his hair. "Maybe we'll just have to use a reserve. Aww!! This sucks!! Why isn't Tai coming?!?? He's never been late before!!"

Just then the referee asked for the team captains to go and flip a coin.

"What are we gonna do?" Zuki panicked.

"Hang tight," Tomo said quickly, "I'll go talk to the referee!"

"What?!?" The mean-looking referee said meanly.

"Tai hasn't arrived yet. Could we just wait a little longer? He'll be here soon!!" Tomo said.

The referee said, "Look, everyone else is here and they're all waiting! We can't start late just because you have such a lousy captain."

"Tai isn't a lousy captain!!!" Tomo cried. "Everyone is late sometimes! Things happen!! Maybe he got caught in traffic!!"

"And maybe he didn't! He's the captain! He's meant to be early!"

"Well, you've been late before! And just 'cause you're the _referee_, they don't mind?"

The referee looked annoyed. "Fine. We'll wait. But just five minutes, okay?"

"Thanks, Ref!" Tomo cried.

Tomo went back to the rest of the team.

"So?" Zuki asked nervously.

"We get another five minutes." Tomo told him. "I just hope Tai gets here soon."

Zuki looked at the other team, which looked strong and menacing. "We didn't even get to warm up or anything!"

Tomo said, "Well then, let's warm up right now!!"

A couple of minutes later, the ref went up to Tomo and said, "Five minutes is up. We have to start the game right now."

The colour drained from Tomo's face. Zuki said, "So, which reserve are we gonna use?"

Tai ran as fast as he could towards the soccer field. Then he remembered. _Ahhh!! I don't have my uniform or my soccer boots!! It's all packed in my bag at the beach-house!! I'm such an idiot!! _

Still, he rushed to the soccer field. _I'll just have to borrow someone else's! _Tai was sweating profusely. He finally got to the field, five minutes into the game. No-one noticed the guy with the fluffy brown hair standing alone, panting for breath.

Only Tomo noticed him.

"Tai's here!!" He yelled to the others. He signalled to the ref and asked if they could switch players.

Tai rushed down to the field, ignoring the angry/relived stares of his team.

"Wait, I don't have my gear." Tai said.

Zuki got really annoyed. "What is wrong with you?!? You're the captain and you come late and you don't bring anything with you!!"

"…I…I'm really sorry," Tai said quietly.

Tomo ran to the bleachers and grabbed a bag. "Here ya go, Captain. Get changed."

"Tomo?" Tai wondered.

Tomo grinned. "I knew our dense captain would forget something."

Tai bowed his head. "Thanks, Tomo." He ran off to get changed.

The other team was growling impatiently and in annoyance. "We should get a penalty because of their lousy captain and how they're wasting our game time!!"

The ref nodded. "Yes, you're right. Your team gets a penalty!"

"WHAT??" All of Tai's team screamed.

Tai returned from the changerooms to see his team glaring at him and the other team jumping for joy. "What?" He asked.

_Friday evening, 7:20pm _

The six Digidestined ran off the train and straight towards the soccer field. Everyone was incredibly excited. Even Joe was running super-fast.

Ten minutes later, they all got to the soccer field. It was five minutes before half-time and they could tell the situation looked awful.

It was currently two-nil, in favour of the other team. The other team had gotten a penalty kick and had scored. They had also scored again since then. Tai's team had trained so hard, yet they couldn't even get close to the other goal.

_What's wrong with Tai? _wondered Tomo. Tomo was the member of the soccer team that respected and trusted Tai the most. Tomo looked up to Tai because he felt that Tai was a great soccer player and a great friend. But Tai was different. He missed the ball. He lost the ball to the other team. He tried to shoot but couldn't.

_Tai, what's wrong with you?!? _All of his team shouted in their heads.

Tai was shocking himself too. He ran after the ball and he was alarmed at how badly he was playing. _Why can't I get the ball? Why do I keep missing?!? _

_What's wrong with me? _He threw a furtive glance at the crowd. _Maybe… it's because my friends aren't with me! They've… always been at all my matches and they've always been cheering me on!! Especially my best friends… Matt… and… Sora… _

Tai tightened his fists. He fought back tears as he thought of the girl he loved.

A sudden energy took over Tai. Tomo and the rest of the team watched with widened eyes. Tai suddenly grew stronger, his eyes darkened coldly and he sped towards the ball.

All those troubles and pained secrets he had kept hidden. All those promises he had made and then broken.

That promise to himself and the Digidestined.

_I won't fall in love! I won't let anything come between our friendship!!_

Broken.

The promise to Tomo to get to his soccer match.

He was late. He hadn't brought his gear. Once again he had to depend on someone else.

The promise to Izzy.

_I won't give up on Sora._

What kinda promise was that? All along, in his heart, he had given up long ago.

The promise he made to Sora.

He could never have seen fireworks with her. Why'd he promise her? He knew he wouldn't be able to make it. And now he had hurt her by running off.

Why? WHY?!? Anger, frustration, hate, aggravation and misery took over him. His eyes were wide and so icy cold.

_WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAPPEN TO ME?!? _

Tai's body was no longer his. It fed on all his crazy out-of-control emotions. Everyone was watching. Especially Sora.

_Is it all because… just because… _

Tai stole the ball of the other team and flew to the goal.

He ran faster than he ever did before. His feelings in a fury, anger and hate raging all around him.

He opened his mouth and yelled.

"IS IT ALL BECAUSE I LOVE SORA?!?!??"

The ball flew into the net and bounced onto the ground. The ref blew his whistle to signify it was a goal and half-time.

Tai was stunned. What had happened to him? He panted for breath and he was sweating a lot. _Why… it is because of that… it's all… my fault…_

Tai's eyes grew empty again and he blindly followed Tomo and Zuki to the stands.

Sora stared at the soccer field. She was shocked and her heart beating so fast. She had heard everything he had said.

She couldn't stop herself. Tears began to run down her face.

**Woot!! That's the end of the 22****nd**** episode!! It's been a while since I wrote such a long chapter. But I had sooo much I wanted to write down! Thanks for all your reviews by the way! They really make me happy and they encourage me to write better! Thankyou! Please read and review!! Seeya!! **


	23. Episode 23!

**Hiya!! I AM SO HAPPY!!! Thankyou SO SO SO MUCH for all your MARVELLOUS reviews!! THANKYOU!! I'm really glad you guys like this fanfic, cuz I really love it myself!! And yeah, we all know that this fic is coming to an end… Aww… but I'm not sure when- though I DO know that this is one of the last ones. This will either be the third-last chapter or the second-last chapter. I guess I'll find out when I finish writing it. So… please read and review!! **

**Don't own Digimon. **

**Episode 23: Beating the game **

The soccer teams were sitting around and talking and drinking lots of water from their water bottles and energy drinks. It was half-time and Tai was physically exhausted, in addition to how frazzled and confused his head was.

Tomo went over to where Tai was sitting slumped over on the front row of the stands.

"Hey, Tai," he smiled, "Good work with that goal back then!"

Tai forced and smile and muttered, "At least you're not angry and disappointed in me like the rest of the team,"

Tomo tried to reassure Tai, "Of course we're not angry at you, Tai! We're really glad you made it because you're our captain and our best player! Besides, you scored a goal so we're closer to the other team's score."

Tai made a disbelieving sound. "Huh." He kept his gaze lowered to the ground. "You gotta stop pretending, Tomo. You know that everyone's annoyed and angry at me."

Tomo opened his mouth to protest but found there was nothing he could say.

Tai was right. The team had been quite furious at the lousiness of their captain and how badly he played. He had distracted and had lost the ball to the other team over and over.

Tai had, however, scored for the team and so a little of the team's trust and respect returned.

Tai was a little embarrassed when he realized what he had yelled out so loudly. The other players were all confused when he randomly screamed out his feelings. But Tai's team let him go, because for some reason, letting it all go had helped him score for their team.

Tai sat alone while everyone else huddled in their groups and talked about strategies and game plans. He normally loved and adored soccer so much but he couldn't find the willingness and energy to play right now. He felt drained.

He raised his head towards the sky. _I guess… I just really need all of my friends right now… I've done such a horrible thing to them- I broke promises and I ran away… but they're my friends and I need them so much!! _

_I just… need them here! I want them to watch me… and to cheer me on, regardless of how my team's doing. I want them to encourage my team and to comfort me if the team is losing… I just… I want all of my friend's support!! I need them and the strength and energy they give me to continue!! _

_Heh… _Tai snickered to himself. _I guess… I really am just an idiot after all…_

_Don't you think so, Agumon? _He was suddenly reminded back of Digidestined memories and the digimon he had loved so much.

Tai was a little enlightened by the thoughts of his friends and loved ones. Until the girl's name who he always carried in his heart came up.

_Sora… I'm… really sorry… _

"TAI!!" Tai jerked to attention.

"Eh? What?" He wondered.

Zuki was standing on the field waving his arms at him. "Yo, captain, half-time's over!!!"

Tai jumped to his feet and ran out onto the field. He stood with his team, pretending to be ready, though his brain was definitely not there.

He felt disheartened and greatly saddened. He gave the soccer ball that was on the ground a forlorn glance as he thought of what a hopeless situation he was in.

_I already know!! I already know… there's no way to win… because when my friends aren't here with me, I already know I'm doomed… _

_We've worked so hard! Everyone has trained and trained but for me to drag everyone down in this game… it's too… unfair!! I know I have to keep playing! I know I have to, for the sake of my team, but… I have no eagerness to play._

All of a sudden, Tai could hear his name being yelled from the stands. He immediately looked up at it, wondering who on earth it could've come from. His mouth dropped open in surprise.

Everyone was there!! The Digidestined, his very best friends… they were all there.

Matt, T.K, Joe, Izzy, Mimi… and they didn't look like they were angry or anything. They were smiling and waving at him, there to cheer him on.

Tai bit his lip to stop tears of emotion in his eyes. Then he realized in shock- Sora wasn't there!! Where was she??

Distress ran through Tai again. _She really is mad at me! I hurt her feelings so badly… she really doesn't want anything to do with me!! _

A loud piercing sound shocked his ears. It was the referee's whistle. The match had resumed. Everyone around him- his team-mates and his opponents, they all leapt in action. Tai was the only one still standing there, unmoving.

Suddenly, he heard the voice that he loved. A weird feeling surged throughout him. What was it? Hope? Fear?

Tai turned towards the voice. Standing in front of the bleachers, a light breeze blowing through her hair, was Sora.

Tai didn't know what to think, but if he was going to think, then he better do it fast before the crowds murder him brutally for just standing there while the game was on.

Sora had tears in her eyes but she wasn't about to let him see them. Instead, she smiled brightly at Tai and said loud enough for him to hear:

"Do your best, Tai!!"

Abruptly, Tai's body seemed to kick into action. Uncontrollable thrill and enthusiasm swept over him and he seemed to move faster than ever.

Hope bubbled inside of him.

Everyone!! All of them!! His friends! His team! The Digidestined!! Sora!! They were here… they wanted him to do his best… they were going to cheer him on… they were depending on him!!

The old Tai came back.

Tai re-emerged, into the Sora-loving, happy and hopeful soccer-fanatic he used to be. And he was going to kick arse!!!

The other team had the ball right now. They were at the other end of the field, aiming for another goal to top almost-already-decided win. Zuki suddenly shot forward while the guy with the ball was doing some fancy footwork to show off.

Zuki was incredibly fast. He sped straight past the guy, and by the time the guy realized what had happened, the ball had been stolen from right in front of him!

Zuki ran fast, trying to gain as much distance as possible. He locked eyes with Tomo and shot the ball towards him.

The ball seemed like a blur as it flew towards Tomo. Tomo was about to get it when a guy from the other team ran in front of him. The guy got the ball and was about to kick it back towards the goal when Taichi Kamiya took over!!

With a huge powerful kick, Tai sent the soccer ball flying towards the goal his team was aiming for.

The soccer ball flew over the heads of some of the players until Zuki jumped up and headed it. The ball dropped towards the ground and Zuki booted it at the goal.

The referee blew his whistle.

Tai's team cheered. The other team scowled.

The soccer ball went back to the middle and the other team got to kick-off. Tai was running back towards his spot when the referee blew his whistle.

The opponent with the ball glared at Tai. He smirked to himself and kicked the ball full-power straight towards Tai's unprotected head.

Mimi gasped.

The Digidestined were all watching. Matt was shocked. "Why is he kicking it at Tai?" he asked. "They're on different teams!!"

Izzy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but I think that guy is really angry at Tai… he just wants to give him concussion or something!"

T.K bit his nails. "Oh no!!" he was wailing.

Just as the ball came into Tai's range he jumped up and did an awesome bicycle. He went into the air and while back-flipping, kicked his legs out and whacked the ball right back.

The person who had kicked off stared in wonder and amazement. The ball went flying right past him and towards Tomo.

Tomo started moving towards the goal. He expertly dodged attacking players and passed it to another one of his team-mates.

Unfortunately, the team-mate lost the ball to one of the other team players. The player passed it to another one and another after that. Slowly, the ball made its way back towards Tai's goal. 

One of the players tried to shoot. Tai managed to send it flying back. Tomo regained the ball and started racing towards the goal. Tai and the rest of the team moved in, ready to finally end this.

Zuki had the ball and carefully manoeuvred it around the other players. Closer to the goal he swiftly passed it to Tai, who in one quick movement kicked it into the goal.

The referee blew his whistle. Tai had scored and the game was over!!

Tai and his team cheered and slapped each other on the back. They laughed and made their way off the field. Everyone was in a joyful and victorious mood.

Tai was the last one of his team to get off the field.

Sora was standing there waiting for him. Their eyes met. Before Tai could open his mouth and stammer some explanation, she spoke.

Her voice was really quiet and thoughtful. She sounded as though she might have been crying earlier and Tai didn't know what to think.

"Tai, I… I need to tell you something… Will you please hear me out?"

**Well… I wasn't sure if that was a good way to end it but that's basically what this chapter was about. I love soccer!! Yayy! big grin **

**Sorry to anyone who isn't such a big fan of the sport and were maybe more hoping for the fluffy side of things. Anyway… the chapter is over and now it's time to reveal the chapter countdown. It is… dun dun dun dun daahh!!!**

**This was the third-last chapter. Next week is the second-last chapter and then afterwards the last chapter will be out. **

**I'm not sure if I should cheer or laugh… anyway, thankyou for reading, and please review!! **


	24. Episode 24!

**Don't own Digimon!!! **

**Hey! emichii here, wishing you've all just had an awesome week since the last chapter!! **

**Awww… I can't believe it's the second-last chapter already. I'm so… exhausted… I dunno why, just… overwhelmed maybe? **

**Thankyou so much for all your reviews, everyone!! Without them, I wouldn't know how I'd manage writing this whole fic. Second-last chapter then. **

**Let us move forward and embrace it!! KYAAHH!!!**

**Read and review, ok? **

"_Before anything else, the Digidestined will be friends forever! Whether it is love or romance, or anything else, we'll put our friendship first!!"_

**Episode 24: Mending the Broken Promises!!**

Tai and Sora stood, facing each other, in front of the bleachers. In the distance, there was the sound of people cheering and talking excitedly, and people busy packing up and clearing away all the stuff from the soccer match.

It was already getting kind of quiet, because a lot of people had already left. Tai swiftly glanced up at where the other Digidestined had been before. They were standing up and slowly heading out as well.

Matt turned and caught Tai's eye. He pointed away from the soccer field, indicating that they would meet him there after he was done. Tai nodded.

The others followed Matt and left. Last was Izzy. Izzy looked over at Tai and gave him a hopeful grin and a thumps-up. Tai grinned back.

"_Don't give up, Tai!! I'm wishing you luck!!" _

"_I won't give up, Izzy!! It's a promise!!"_

Sora watched Tai. He was looking so happy and so carefree and relaxed. She hadn't seen him like that for so long. And now that the Tai she loved was back, she could barely contain herself.

"Tai…" she began.

Tai immediately started talking. He had so much to explain, so much to say, so much to apologize for. He was finally back. He was feeling so much better now and he was determined to fix up things.

"Sora!" He said, "I'm really really sorry about today!! I know… I just left so suddenly without saying anything… I know I must've worried and hurt you and the others so badly… I'm so sorry for all the trouble I've caused all of you, I'm sorry!!"

Tai was silent for a moment, trying to recall what he had said exactly a couple of hours before when he'd left her so suddenly. He remembered.

"_He's me." _

Tai eyebrows furrowed, creasing his forehead. He lowered his head as he remembered it all. "…Sora, did you… hear what I said before I ran off?"

"What…? No… I didn't-"

Tai gathered up his courage and spoke bravely, "You see, Sora, I-"

He stopped when Sora cried out, "I heard what you said before, Tai!"

"Huh?"

Sora was fighting back tears. There weren't sad tears, just tears of emotion. After all, she had restrained them for so long. What she had heard Tai yell out when he had shot his first goal was so tearful for her.

What were there? Tears of joy, tears of relief, tears of awkwardness, tears of love, tears of knowing that he felt the same…

"I-I heard what you yelled out in the soccer game, Tai!!" Sora cried. Tears started welling up in her eyes and spilling out. "I heard it… and I…"

The colour was drained away from Tai's face. "Crap." he whispered. "You… heard it? I… I…"

Tai struggled to say so many things and explain everything but could hardly find the words to put what he felt in.

Tai lowered his head, unable to look at Sora. "Yeah. I said that. I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for?" Sora asked, gazing at him.

"I'm sorry for that. You… weren't meant to find out." Tai said, still not taking his eyes off the super interesting ground. "I didn't want you to know… because I was breaking the promise and I… felt so horribly guilty, because I'm such a hypocrite… I tried to hide it because I knew you didn't feel the same. I just… I… I don't know anymore!!"

Tai shook his head in dismay and distress. "I'm so sorry, Sora… I guess… maybe I ran off today because… you confessed and told me you were in love with some other guy. I am… really sorry, Sora."

"Tai!!" Sora said loudly.

Tai looked up; his eyes were full of sadness and dread.

"Tai," Sora cried, trying to stay serious, but a smile breaking across her face, "the guy I love is you!!"

Tai was standing there, mouth hanging open and eyes so wide, his eyelids were touching his hair. He just stood there stunned for a while, unable to accept it.

_What kinda dream am I in?!? _He was puzzled.

But Sora's happy tears weren't a dream, there were real. And so was he.

Tai finally realized it all. There it all was, in front of him all along. It was so weird, like his wildest dreams had come true.

He couldn't describe the happiness and joy bursting out from inside him. A huge typical-Tai-like grin appeared on his face and he felt tears in his eyes too. He reached out to Sora and hugged her so tight.

"…" Sora let Tai hug her as her face grew warm. "…Tai??"

His voice was muffled and he wouldn't allow her to see his face.

"…Thankyou…," Tai murmured. "Sora… Thanks…"

_I don't understand… I'm so confused, yet I'm so happy at the same time. Why do you continue to forgive me over and over again, when every time it's me who is breaking the promises, me who is betraying your trust and me who continues to misunderstand you. Sora… I don't get how you could still love someone like me…_

A small smile crept on Tai's face. He grinned harder and harder, although tears were most definitely building up in his eyes.

…_so, thankyou Sora… thanks so much… _

"TAII!!" Mimi ran up to Tai, as he and Sora met the other Digidestined outside the soccer field.

Mimi gave Tai a huge hug, along with a bright smile. "TAII!! I'm so glad you're all right!!"

Tai looked a little sheepish. He looked around him, where his best friends were gathered.

He was still a little tearful but wasn't about to show it. "Thanks so much, guys…" he started, "I… I don't know what I'd do without you!!"

Matt gave Tai's shoulder a light slap. "Heh! What are you talking about, Tai?"

"Well, you know… All this time, I've been going on and on about staying faithful to your friends and keeping promises… I've been so stupid and I've hurt so many of your feelings. I've broken the most important promises, as well as so many others… I ran away from Sora and the trip… I've been acting like such a fool… I'm… I'm so sorry, everyone…" Tai lowered his head and studied his feet. "I still can't believe… that you guys came back all this way for me… I can't believe you guys aren't angry at me… I can't believe that you guys would still come and cheer for me… Thankyou… so much…"

Matt rolled his eyes. "Dense as always, I can see," he said. He grinned hard at his best friend, "What do you keep going on about?!? Think about it this way, Tai! We've all strayed in different directions lately, and you've always been there for us. You've always been trying to pull us back together and keep us going down the path together… you've been trying your very best, so why should we be bitter to you?? There's no way we could repay you for all that you've done for us, Tai!! We knew that one day you'd too start breaking with all the secrets and burdens you've been carrying… we knew that we kept depending on you too much, Tai, so that's why we're here, offering to help you out… It's the least we could do!"

Tai was overcome with emotion. Tears racked his voice. "Th-thankyou so… much!!!" he wailed.

Everyone lightened up and started feeling a little cheerier.

Tai was still a little bit quiet.

Joe asked, "What's up, Tai? Still overwhelmed?"

Tai shook his head. "No… it's just… now what happens to the promise?"

"The promise??" Izzy said. "That's always going to stand for ever and ever… I think that when you first made that promise back then, Tai, you didn't know what you were saying. You were probably blabbing out something random that popped into your head. Maybe that's why we all realized how hard that promise was to keep…"

Tai was silent, listening intently to what Izzy was saying.

"But the truth is, Tai, what you randomly blabbed out was something important, that we're always gonna remember. You see… maybe we all went through so much because we didn't understand the promise… and it's taken us this long to find out!!"

Izzy kept on talking, "What the promise meant was we would always be friends with each other and not let anything break up our friendship… so it's okay for us to fall in love with someone, we just can't let our friendship be ruined just because we've found someone special!!"

Izzy's face was turning bright red as he was making his little speech. When he finished, he just looked a little embarassed. Then his eyes locked with Mimi's.

To his surprise her face was also pink. They didn't say anything, but Mimi smiled at Izzy and he smiled back.

…_even if I find someone special, huh? _

Sora caught up to Tai, who was walking near the front of the group. She quietly slid her hand into his.

Tai stopped abruptly. He turned to look at her with amazement on his flushing face.

Sora's face was also slightly pink. She smiled a beautiful smile. "What Izzy said is right, isn't it, Tai?"

"Yeah… it's right," Tai agreed. He held Sora's hand firmly.

He turned back to look at his treasured friends. A wonderful true Tai grin light up his face.

"Let's go home!!"

There was a happy chorus of replies until Matt gave his pessimistic comment.

"Uh, Tai?" he said.

"Yeah?"

"All our bags and belongings are still at the beach."

The colour drained from Tai's face and a huge groan erupted from the Digidestined.

"TTAAIII!!"

**Hmm, it could've been a good time to end the fic right now, but there's still an event I planned I really really wanna write about. Because of that, there's still one chapter to go!! **

**So… next week: Chapter 25 of Forever Friends, Forever Digidestined comes out. It will be the last one. I can then close this document and never open it again. **

**Just kidding!! It's not that drastic!! **

**By the way, when I ended such a long fic last time (Shouldn't Love You Anymore), I thanked every single reviewer who reviewed in the last chapter. I was surprised when I got people who really liked the idea!! **

**So… read and review!! See ya next time for the… sob… LAST CHAPTER!!! **

**Take care!! emichii! **


	25. Episode 25!

…**okay!! It's the last chapter!! NOOOO!! Are you ready?? REALLY???**

'**Cause I'm really super emotional, so we always gotta have the music, don't we?? Right now, I'm playing Hikaru Utada's 'I Love You'. Aaahhh… I can't believe this is really ending!! Nooo!!! **

**Well… yeah last chapter always means super long author notes where I babble on and on and everyone gets bored so they skip it all… Anyway, I really wanna thank everyone who's read and supported this fic!! Thankyou so so so much!! I'll list every one of my reviewers after the chapter ends!! **

**Yep, everybody!! Thankyou soooo much!! Here's the last chapter… of FFFD!!! **

**ENJOY!! **

_Our friendship will not be broken. _

**Episode 25: Forever Friends, Forever Digidestined**

The Digidestined were gathered around the train station.

After a little bit of trouble and a couple of phone calls and desperate pleads to the owners of the beach-house, they had managed to get their bags and belongings back.

The very nice owners of the beach-house had kindly taken all of the Digidestined's bags and sent them back to Odaiba by train. And the Digidestined were there to take them.

"I can't believe all the trouble you caused us, Tai!" Matt cried.

Tai lowered his head sheepishly. "Sorry."

Joe put an arm around Tai's shoulders. "Hey, without Tai, we wouldn't be like this right now… we've had so many problems keeping the promise and everything… and there were so many times that we almost gave up and so many times we might not have still been friends… Tai, maybe you've done some incredibly stupid things but you had a reason to!!"

Matt grinned. "Duh!"

Joe stood there with all the other Digidestined. His bags were sitting by his feet and he couldn't describe the happy feeling he had inside. He was so glad he hadn't gone to Australia. There was no other place he'd rather be than right here at home, in Odaiba, with his very best friends.

Suddenly, Joe opened a pocket in one of his bags and pulled out something special. The tag with the Crest of Reliability lay in Joe's hands. He stared at it seriously.

"_JOE!! STAY A DIGIDESTINED FOREVER!!!" _

Joe tightened his grip on the tag. _Well, duh! Of course I'm gonna!! _

Running a hand through his cool blonde hair, Matt looked a little bored. He was watching the others. Tai and Sora were getting along so well, he was almost jealous. But then again, he was so happy that Tai was back to the Tai he knew best. Matt was so glad his best friend was back to normal.

His gaze lowered a little. His thoughts drifted back a little to his former girlfriend-Sayo. He thought about his troubles choosing between his love and his friends. He chuckled to himself. _Yeah… I guess… I still haven't learned to love yet, have I? _

Matt looked up at the sky. _This might've bothered me before… but for some reason, I'm okay with it… I wonder why…? _

He felt a tug on his sleeve. Matt looked down. T.K grinned at him, and Matt grinned back.

_I'm okay because my friends are with me… and I really… really believe… _Matt reached into his pocket and touched the tag with the crest of Friendship on it. _I really do believe… one day I'll find my special someone! _

T.K could not stop grinning. His smile stretched all the way across his face.

After all, everything was taken care of, wasn't it? Everyone standing around him was so happy. He thought he didn't matter before. He really thought that. How could he ever have thought that? Did he really think that just because he was the youngest, he didn't count? He knew it was true though… he was needed. He was needed just as much as Tai. And he knew he could help. Even though maybe the only thing he could do was worry, it did help others if they just knew that they were important and worth worrying about.

"_You might not be able to do things for others by yourself but because you want to help, it just shows how willing you really are!!" _

T.K smiled again. He was excited that he would see Kari again soon, for the first time since he'd been on the holiday trip. In fact, he was so happy to be back and with his friends, he would actually be happy to see that freak Davis.

The crest of Hope shone brightly on the tag around T.K's neck.

Izzy sighed. Man, he was so glad everything had worked out. In fact, now he was totally exhausted. So many things had happened, and now it had all caught up to him.

Still, he was really happy. So… everyone was friends again. Everything was worked out. And the promise was renewed and this time everyone understood it.

How come he still felt as though he was missing something?

_The promise… means that even though we found someone we cherish the most, we would still keep our friendship with each other… that means… it would be okay, wouldn't it? _

Izzy snuck a look at Mimi.

He was alarmed when he found that she was looking at him too.

Mimi smiled beautifully. Her eyes seemed a little teary and she went closer towards Izzy.

"Izzy… I actually understand the promise now… so… if it's okay with you… please… won't you accept my feelings for you??"

He didn't say anything but the expression that spread over his face was obvious.

Mimi leant over and planted a gentle kiss on him.

They both blushed bright red.

Mimi gazed up at the beautiful pale blue sky. The tag with the crest of Sincerity on it hung from her neck and she reached up and clutched it.

_I wonder how everything could've turned out so well… these past few months… I've been hurt… and crying… and broken-hearted… I've been angry and feeling betrayed… and I've been confused… but everything's okay now… because I've realized what a great gift these people I love are… and they're always beside me, every one of them. _

Sora had gotten all her bags and stuff and she had been waiting for the others to get all their stuff. She just couldn't describe the feeling bubbling inside her.

Was it love?

She held her tag in her hand. She had been hiding her feelings for so long and now that they were revealed, she wasn't sure what to think anymore. It was true that she loved Tai the most… but it surprised her that he felt the same.

Tai… he had been carrying so many secrets and burdens on his back. It weighed him down and he had trouble moving ahead. There were so many promises and secrets he was trying to keep. He had been trying his best to keep his best friends together and everyone happy and smiling.

Tai had sure… gone through a lot. He was the leader but he had to learn that he wasn't alone… he could depend on others.

"…Tai," Sora said.

Tai looked over her. "Yeah?"

"You're not alone, okay?" She reached out and took his hand. It fit hers so well… "We… the Digidestined… we're always here for you."

Tai made a puzzled look. "Oookkayyy…" he said.

Tai looked at his friends around him. He felt Sora's hand in his and he felt confidence and happiness sear through him. He turned to everybody else and with his free hand, pulled out his tag from his pocket.

"Hey everybody, throw your tags in the air!!" he shouted.

"WHAAATT??" Joe cried. "What are you talking about???"

Tai rolled his eyes. "I said throw them in the air, not throw them away!!"

Joe took his tag with the Crest of Reliability in the hands nervously. "Okay…"

All of the Digidestined took their tags and crests and threw them up in the air.

All seven of the precious tags flying threw the air, and the sun shining brightly through them. Friendship, Reliability, Hope, Knowledge, Sincerity, Love and Courage.

Tai gazed at them and felt a little teary. A small smile tugged at his mouth.

_Yeah… they're all there… everyone of them… _

Tai felt the warm bright sunshine streaming from the sky over him and his friends. He watched the tags fall down and everyone run to catch them.

_Everybody's been here right beside me all along… I never had to feel alone… or think that I was the only one suffering. _

_I didn't have to carry my troubles alone… because… _Tai glanced over at Sora and they exchanged smiles. _Because… I know that someone will always be there for me._

Tai gripped his tag in his hand and grinned super hard. _Friends will always be there for each other!! _

All of the Digidestined stood there, on the train platform, just standing and thinking silently. Though they said nothing, they knew that they were all thinking the same thing.

A truly happy smile spread across Tai's face.

_If it's a promise, we'll always keep it. _

_Nothing will ever come between our friendship. _

_No matter what, we will stay friends forever. We'll always support each other and listen to the other person… even if we don't understand, we'll try our hardest to… we can… share our burdens with someone else… so that the troubles on our back get lighter…_

_I truly believe that… _

_We'll always be…_

_Forever Friends, Forever Digidestined. _

**The end **

**Hi everyone… thankyou sooo much… for everything!! Thanks for reading and thanks for supporting me and thanks for your magnificent reviews!! THANKYOU SOOO MUCH!! You're all my wonderful awesome friends!! THANKYOU!! AARRGHHH I CAN'T SAY IT ENOUGH!!! **

**So… I wanna say thanks to all of these people- these are all my reviewers, from the ones that have been with me for a long time, to the ones that started reading recently… thank you all!! **

**A big thanks to: TerrorizingTaiora11, yune16, DeadlyD05, ellabell, Shizuku Tsukishima749, Rawkstarx0, lovingmylife, MoonyBurlesqueZiggyHepburn, Xanpluto, JyouraKoumi, dbzgtfan2004, KoumiLoccness, ohTEE, BandGeek95, WritingQueen690, Thoren, lostheart480, M M Forever, FatesDecision, l'ange-de-feu, raygypsy714, Vigatus, YukiGaAruAi 0 CourageousLove 0, WarriorWithNoEqual, eileene, Bldlf, Player Zero, x-Melodyz-x, whirlpool. **

**Oh yeah and TerrorizingTaiora11, I wanna give you a BIG HUG for giving me my first review for this fic and supporting me throughout the WHOLE FIC!! Thanks!! And thankyou for reading my other taiora fics too! THANKS!! **

**I should probably wrap it all up now but first!! A lot of the time after I finish a fic, I write about the new one that comes out after it! So… TA DAH!!**

**The next fic will be my first Bleach fic. It's called ****I'm a Soul Reaper, but I Love You.**** It's a Hitsugaya/Karin. Plotline: Karin's spiritual pressure suddenly grows and Hitsugaya is sent to earth to battle all the Hollows that are targeting Karin. **

**So, should you read?? That's up to you!! **

**Thankyou for everything, everyone! Waahhh… FFFD is officially over!! Goodbye and hopefully, maybe I'll Seeya again sometime!! Thankyou!! **

**emichii!! **


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